Intersecting Lines
by unicorn1111
Summary: Maura & Jane have taken a six month secondment to Los Angeles and the LAPD, to give their relationship a chance to grow far from home. Maura is the LAPDs new ME while Jane has been assigned to Major Crimes under Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson. Cameos are to be expected in later chapters. Final Chapter is Up!
1. Chapter 1

A/N My first work here, I hope you like it. A few things I should get out of the way before we begin. This will be a long work; I have some 65 chapters already completed or underway, so buckle up. Secondly, you will see cameos from other shows, which I hope you will enjoy.

If you are an author here on FF and you see something that looks like it might reflect your work, it's probably because I have been immersed in the stories here and the great work here has probably rubbed off on me. No plagiarism intended.

As always, the characters here are the creation of their respective rights holders, and the wonderful actors and actresses who bring them to life for us. To them we owe a vast debt of gratitude for the pleasure they bring us. No infringement of their rights is intended, but thank you for letting us play with them, just for a little while.

As always, feedback is very, very welcome. Review early and often

**Pope meets Anastasia**

Popes viewpoint

LAPD Chief of Police Will Pope was having a good start to the week. None of his officers had killed anyone over the weekend.

Even better, none had been killed, for which he was profoundly grateful. He hated officiating at funerals; he always struggled to tell the grieving families that their father, mother, husband or wife, son or daughter had died for something important. It felt like a lie, he could say the words, but he didn't believe them anymore.

At least right now there were no massive lawsuits hanging over the Department, the Mayor's office seemed happy with the Department's closure rate and most of the LAPD's key performance indices were up.

Pope stared at the stack of paperwork sitting in his in tray and sighed, he hated it, always had, but it needed to be done, even though he almost wished for something to happen to distract him from it. Hell, even Major Crimes and Force Investigation were on almost cordial terms these days, for which he offered a silent prayer every day.

It was bad enough that Major Crimes was run by an ex, even if she was still one of his smartest officers. Brenda Leigh Johnson was still as attractive as ever and he was honest enough to admit he still wanted her. The apparent break-up of her marriage might have provided a window but she had made it emphatically clear that she wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. He couldn't tell if she meant marriage or him and didn't dare ask, Brenda Leigh Johnson in a rage was a frighteningly elemental force of nature.

It hadn't helped that his tentative overtures to Sharon Raydor had been shot down with almost clinical coldness. Sharon was as beautiful as Brenda, but she was ice to Brenda's fire. When Johnson and Raydor had been at each other's throats previously he had been a referee, their ire directed at each other while part of him had secretly enjoyed watching them fight. It was a catfight fought not with claws and teeth but with words and venomous glances, but equally capable of drawing blood.

Now, having managed to come to some sort of mutual coexistence pact, they had turned their attention to everyone else, which had most of the senior echelon of the LAPD profoundly nervous.

One of them was bad enough, both together was a nightmare, as that idiot Taylor had found out several weeks back when he crossed them both at a shooting involving one of Robbery Homicide's detectives.

Pope leaned back in the chair, closing his eyes and thought back to that particularly unpleasant day, as he waited for his first meeting of the day.

Taylor had tried to stall Raydor's investigation, while refusing to allow Major Crimes to take over the original investigation, which had spiralled into a much larger case.

By the time Pope had arrived they were tag teaming Taylor on the scene, to the open amusement of both their teams. In fact Flynn and Elliot were taking bets on Taylor either having a stroke or a heart attack. Given the colour of his face, Pope wouldn't have bet against either.

He'd tried to defuse the situation, telling Taylor that he was aware that FID only had 72 hours to investigate the shooting so he should get out of their way and that Major Crimes would take over the case until Raydor's investigation was complete.

It was then that Taylor went and monumentally fucked up. He looked at the two women standing there, turned to him and demanded to know how Pope could hand a case his team had been working on for several months to a pair of 'overwrought' women. Pope knew Taylor had always had issues with women, especially in positions of authority but Jesus! He was stunned.

Before he could respond with something much beyond '_what the hell!;_ Raydor and Johnson had pounced on Taylor like a pair of high heeled raptors, with even less mercy, alternating tearing strips off him in front of the combined teams from Robbery Homicide, Major Crimes and Force Investigation. After about 30 seconds they started grinding salt into the wounds.

Pope had realised they weren't going to stop anytime soon and had to step in and order them to back off, before ordering Taylor back to headquarters, telling Robbery Homicide to make themselves available to FID as required and hand their files over to Major Crimes within three hours.

That last thing Pope had seen saw as he left the scene was Johnson and Raydor sharing satisfied smiles, which probably scared him more than anything.

The two of them working together had proven exceptional at solving a number of cases, ever since the Ally Moore case, however this was the first time he had seen them turn on someone as a team and it was quite frankly terrifying.

He had ended up sending Taylor on a week's leave, telling him to take a good hard look at himself before he stepped back inside the building. There wasn't much more he could do as Taylor was tight with the union and plugged into a pile of political channels, but Pope had already decided to clip his wings wherever possible.

The first was to strip him of his media liaison role; ostensibly because he was busy running Robbery Homicide and the department needed a full time media professional in the liaison role. No one could argue with that logic, plus it kept him away from the press. Pope was certain that he had been a serial leaker to them in the past, especially against Johnson, but hadn't been able to conclusively prove it yet.

The fact that the best candidate for the job, with previous police media experience and impeccable references, was a woman was just icing on the cake. Pope was hoping that a softer, more feminine face dealing with the media might help turn around the LAPDs relations with them, or at least get the force a chance to get its side of the story out.

Natalie Dearing certainly fit the bill, Pope smiled as he thought back to the interviews the department had conducted, all of the candidates had been interesting, but he still remembered every one of the interviews with Natalie, who was hard to forget. Pope was looking forward to having her around, even if she was apparently the partner of a Federal agent. Pope was honest enough to admit to himself that he did like the eye candy even if he dare not admit it to anyone.

Pope glanced at the clock, having successfully deferred the waiting paperwork for a bit longer, waiting for his first appointment of the day. The department's new FBI liaison was starting today and hopefully could settle things between the force and the Bureau. They had not really been good since Fritz Howard had left on leave, then for a new job in Washington, leaving Brenda in LA. They weren't yet officially divorced but the separation was looking very permanent.

There had been a number of temporary FBI liaison officers assigned since Fritz departed, but all were filling in until a new liaison could be permanently dedicated to the role. Special Agent Anastasia Romanov had been transferred from the Seattle field office where she had been the Bureau's police liaison there.

A quiet knock on the door brought him out of his daydreams, to see his secretary Belinda open the door to announce that his new FBI liaison officer had arrived.

Pope stood and walked around the desk to greet his visitor. He wasn't quite sure what he had been expecting, most FBI agents he had met tended to medium to large university-educated men with short haircuts and an arrogant air about them. The woman who stepped in was anything but that.

Medium height, with mid-length dark hair in a ponytail, a curvaceous build under the tailored blue pinstripe suit, her undeniably attractive face hinted at an exotic mix of backgrounds, but her voice was pure mid-west USA. No nervousness was apparent in her firm handshake as she smiled warmly back at him. As his eyes took her in a little voice deep inside where only he could hear observed that Agent Romanov could quite justifiably be classed as eye candy as well.

As they sat down Pope noticed a diamond solitaire ring gracing one hand, looking up he saw strikingly grey eyes were taking in the office, before settling back on him.

"Agent Romanov, welcome to the LAPD"

"Thank you Chief Pope, I'm pleased to finally get here".

"Why exactly did it take long to get you here, if you don't mind me asking?" She rolled her eyes.

"Bureaucracy basically; Agent Howard took several months leave before accepting a promotion to a position in Washington, which meant that the replacement process couldn't start until then. The Bureau wanted someone with previous experience as police liaison and took their time looking for someone with the right skills that was prepared to relocate to LA" She shrugged.

"I was approached about the role two months ago however I wanted to be sure my partner could find work here in LA, which they did, before I accepted the role"

"Well, I'm glad you have finally made it, better late than never" She smiled.

"Thank you, I'm looking forward to it, if only because the weather has to be better here than in Seattle" She shook her head before continuing.

"It rains way too much for my tastes up there; I got tired of standing in the rain at crime scenes"

"Well, I think we can offer you better weather here, but you'll probably still end up spending too much time at crime scenes" Pope leaned forward.

"I've been trying to put some pressure on the Bureau to speed up the process of getting a replacement for Agent Howard for several months. He had a good relationship with a number of my departments and his assistance was a big help in closing a number of major cases. The people since then have not been anywhere near as helpful" He held up his hand as Romanov went to speak.

"I'm not criticising them, but they were usually junior agents who had been assigned to work with us in addition to their normal work, the LAPD wasn't their priority and therefore they support they brought was limited. I expect that will change now that you're here" She nodded quickly.

"I can assure you it will. I was liaison to the Seattle PD for three years before coming here and established good working relationships across the force up there".

"Yes, I rang Chief Hamilton after the Bureau told me where you were coming from" Pope smiled at her as she cocked her head to one side.

"You have nothing to worry about Agent Romanov; his only complaint was that you were leaving. In fact he demanded a bottle of scotch at the next Chief's conference as his price for, as he put it, letting you go" Her smile turned into a wide grin.

"Don't let him fool you Chief; he got a bottle of 25-year old Scotch out of me before I left on exactly the same pretext" Pope smiled back.

"I expected as much, I've known Steve for more than twenty years and nothing would surprise me there. I'll buy him a drink the next time I see him and tell him to stop double dipping"

"Please give him my regards when you do. He was a good person to work with"

"I know that Belinda has arranged meetings for you with HR to get you access passes and such, plus meetings with the heads of most of the departments you will be working with regularly" She nodded.

"I believe so, although I don't know the exact schedule yet. I'm sure I will meet everyone soon enough" Pope nodded.

"There's a lot of that at the moment, we have a number of new starters this week, including a new Medical Examiner, a new media liaison and a detective on loan from Boston Homicide" She frowned.

"That's a bit unusual isn't it? I mean the detective on loan?"

"She came as a package, our Medical Examiner is also on loan from Boston, subbing for our ME whose off for six months and she asked if we could accommodate her partner. They both needed to get away from Boston for a while"

"Well, I have yet to find a police department that has enough detectives. Interesting that they let both their ME and a Homicide detective go for six months, who are these new starters?

The detective is Jane Rizzoli while the ME is Doctor Maura Isles" Pope watched her eyes widen.

"The Surgeon case, Charles Hoyt, it's them?" Pope nodded.

"Yes, that Rizzoli and Isles"


	2. Chapter 2

A/N Thanks to the person who helped me mentally prepare to publish this. To **cptraydorsgf**, a fine FF author, thanks for your kind words and encouragement, this wouldn't have happened without the inspiration your work provided

**Sharon meets Natalie**

Sharon's viewpoint

I was sitting in my office, going over performance evaluations for my team, which I truly, truly hate. They do an exemplary job, which just gets them scorn and worse from the rest of the force. I dislike having to arbitrarily rate their performance when I know they couldn't be more professional or more committed to the job.

To stay sane I basically write the same report for each member of my team, then use the thesaurus to change enough words that HR don't guess what I am doing. I haven't been caught yet and don't expect to be.

I heard a set of high heels approaching my office and looked up to see a blonde woman in a dark grey fitted suit walking into the squad room. She was stunning, in a city full of professionally beautiful women like Los Angeles, with its studios and music stars and porn actresses, she was still noteworthy.

All work in the room had stopped, as my squad looked over our visitor, Sergeant Elliot belatedly remembered his manners, standing up and moving towards her. She obviously asked him a question as he leans in toward her. Elliot steps back and points towards my office as she smiles at him. I see that smile and I have to take a breath, it's stunning, like the rest of her. Who the hell is this woman who's just walking into my office?

"Commander Raydor?"

"Yes"

"Hello, Natalie Dearing, I'm the LAPD's new media liaison" Media liaison? What happened to Taylor?

"Oh. Please, come in"

"Thank you"

"I stood and stepped forward, offering her my hand, which she takes. It's a firm handshake from a warm, soft hand. I gesture towards the chair in front of my desk.

"Please, take a seat Ms Dearing"

"Oh, please, call me Nat, or Natalie if we're being formal" I smile as we sit, trying to avoid staring.

"As you wish; so are you replacing Commander Taylor as media liaison?" Natalie folded her hands in her lap and looked directly at me, while I noticed a diamond solitaire on her finger.

"Yes, it was felt that by bringing in a specialist media manager, Commander Taylor would be free to concentrate on running Robbery Homicide" I leaned back, making sure I kept my face impassive.

Russell Taylor being replaced and by a woman, oh the incredible irony, Karma really did exist. I felt like whooping for the sheer joy of it and God knows I am not a whooping kind of woman, at least not at work where people can see me. I desperately tried to play it cool.

"I see. How long have you been handling the media?"

"Five years as a journalist, another three years as a media liaison with the Seattle PD" I nodded. So she was a journalist, which meant she was probably both smart and observant.

"Ah, I see. And how do you see yourself working with FID. That is why you're here I assume?" I watched her blue eyes narrow slightly as she leaned forward. I tried not inhale too deeply as a faint whiff of orchids reached me.

"I see my job as keeping the media out of your hair while you do your job. You only have 72 hours so there's none to waste on you having to deal with the media"

"That's something I can certainly agree with. So you have worked with FID in Seattle?" She nodded.

"It has a different name there but the same job. I will be on site, talk to you about what we want to say and then get out of your way" I leaned back in my chair; Natalie was telling me what I wanted to hear.

"So, you will be on call for our cases?" She nodded.

"Yes, I expect that the majority of call outs will be from the Gang Task Force, Major Crimes or FID. Most of the others will be a bit less urgent and should be able to wait until work hours or can be handled by one of the department's existing media team" I nodded slowly.

"So you're really here to deal with the biggest cases?"

"Yes, Chief Pope explained that my job was to try and minimise the damage and get the Department portrayed in the best light possible" She wasn't wrong, there had been too many instances where Taylor had dropped the ball, it had to stop.

Ever since Taylor had been shunted out of Major Crimes after Brenda made it clear she no longer wanted him anywhere near her or her squad, he had been brooding. Even being back in charge of Robbery Homicide hadn't helped him. Now relations between the two teams were poisonous, not helped when Taylor had been handling media for Brenda's cases. Natalie's arrival might take one more irritant out of the mix. I spread my hands in a gesture of helplessness.

"You can understand that I hope we will not be calling you too often, but it's out of our hands"

"Unfortunately, yes I do" At least she was honest.

"You do realise Los Angeles is probably ground zero for bad media stories, what made you want to come here?" Natalie leaned back and shrugged.

"My partner just received a transfer to a role with the LAPD and I needed a job here. My skills and experience made me a good fit for the role and I was available"

"Oh, what does your partner do?" I saw her smile.

"She has just been assigned as FBI Liaison to the LAPD" I thought for a second, as I watched her carefully scrutinising my reaction from behind an agreeable smile. Perhaps she had encountered some resistance to being a lesbian elsewhere.

Well, I had no problems with her sexual orientation; I'd been there, many years ago, when people had been a lot less accepting than they were now. No, I wasn't going to be her problem, there were others who would cause her grief if they could.

"Oh, that would be the replacement for Agent Howard" I stated. There had been no permanent FBI Liaison in the eight months since Brenda's husband had walked out on her for a job in Washington.

"Yes, it took a while for the paperwork to come through; Ana swears that the B in FBI stands for bureaucracy" I laughed.

"I doubt that they can be much worse than here, we drown in paperwork"

"Sounds just like my last job then. Good to see that some things remain the same. Well, I have some meetings to sit in on so I had better go" Natalie turned that killer smile on me once again. "It's been lovely meeting you, I'm sure we will cross paths again soon"

"I'm sure they will. Thanks for stopping by. Have you been to see Major Crimes or the Gang Task Force yet?"

"No, I plan on seeing Commander Reynolds and Deputy Chief Johnson tomorrow, but wanted to see you first, given the deadlines FID works under" I smiled, for reasons having nothing to do with that.

We both stood up as she pulled a card from her purse and passed it to me.

"That's my cell number, call me anytime you need me" I nodded, handing her my card in return and we shook hands again.

I dropped back into my seat and watched her walk out through the squad room. To be honest I was actually watching her ass and legs, which were both pretty sensational. I also noticed I wasn't the only one; all work had stopped outside as she passed.

I shook my head; she was attached, at least 20 years younger than me and frankly could have almost anyone she wanted. Still, she was worth a daydream. Damn, it had been a long dry spell, way too long. It was getting so the only relief I was getting was in my mind. I resolutely cleared away the images that were forming there and thought back to Taylor, unpleasant as that was. The thought did kill my libido stone cold dead though.

So Taylor had been stripped of his media liaison role, not before time. I still suspected that he had been the one feeding information to Goldman. Unfortunately Goldman had carried that information to the grave with him so Taylor walked off scot free.

I wondered if I should call Brenda and tell her the news or wait until we met up after work tonight.

I smiled, better to wait and we could share Taylors discomfort at our leisure.

With a sigh I turned back to Sergeant Elliot's evaluation, looking for alternatives to the words outstanding and exceptional.


	3. Chapter 3

**Brenda meets Maura**

Brenda's point of view

It was shaping up to be an interesting morning and that was before my new Medical Examiner walked into the room.

I had been sitting in my office, watching our new detective, Jane Rizzoli, chatting to my detectives after I had introduced her.

I had noticed the squad's attention level spike when I walked her up from HR, she was tall, slender and quite striking in a very Italian way, something her entirely practical grey top, dark slacks and jacket didn't really do much to hide. There was a nervous energy about her, plus a 'don't mess with me' attitude that I felt was covering something deeper.

She had come to us on loan from Boston PD accompanied by some impressive recommendations and an even more impressive track record. I had no doubt she also brought a few scars, some visible, others less so. You didn't deal with serial killers like Charles Hoyt, who had got to her several times before she had killed him, without them leaving you scarred in return.

After I handled the introductions and made my way back to the office, the squad chatted with her for half an hour or so before David Gabriel took her on the squad's morning coffee run. She would learn where the best coffee was found so that she could make the run herself, plus David would fill her in on some of the 'interesting' personalities in the team. I was very fond of them all but they could be a bit daunting to be dropped amongst cold.

I heard the distinctive sound of high heels approaching and looked up quickly, happily wondering what had brought Sharon upstairs, when I realised that the sound came from a petite honey-blonde with what I could tell was very good taste in clothes. She wore a fitted white dress with matching heels and a blue blazer and wore them well indeed.

I saw both Sanchez and Flynn stand up and move towards our very attractive visitor, who was obviously asking for someone. Sanchez pointed to my office where they saw me watching. She thanked them with a winning smile and walked up to my door. I also noticed that the eyes of everyone in the office were following her as she walked.

"Good morning, Chief Johnson, I'm Maura Isles" I smiled and walked around the desk to shake her hand.

"Why good morning to you Doctor Isles, please come in and have a seat" She walked over and carefully sat down as I took the chair next to her.

"I'm very pleased that you will be replacing Doctor Morales while he is on his six month's sabbatical. Your reputation has preceded you" She smiled gratefully.

Thank you Chief Johnson, I was looking for an opportunity to expand my experience and the opportunity to come to Los Angeles was far too good to pass up. I wasn't sure that my application would be accepted"

"Your Lieutenant Cavanagh did make it clear that he wanted both yourself and Detective Rizzoli back on time and, as he put it when I spoke to him, in one piece. He also stated that your work was outstanding and I wouldn't be disappointed" The Doctor smiled as she smoothed down the material covering her legs, she seemed a little embarrassed, perhaps not used to compliments on her work.

"He was very kind to sign off on both of our absences, and I am grateful to both him and you" She looked out at the team which had calmed down and was working through paperwork. Perhaps she was looking for our new addition.

"I am looking forward to working with you and your team. Doctor Morales was kind enough to leave some excellent notes, including comments on the various teams I would be working with. I must say that he rated Major Crimes highly and I am aware that your success rate is quite enviable"

"Why, I must remember to thank Dr Morales if.., when he gets back" I smiled to cover the slip.

"Is Dr Morales alright? He seems to have been very methodical and precise in his work, based on the state of the morgue he left and his case notes" I paused before replying, noting that our new M.E. was both alert and inquisitive, not bad traits for someone in her role.

"Dr Morales has taken leave to care for his partner who is ill. I understand that they have travelled to Hawaii to help in the recovery" I said, hoping she would let the matter drop, to my relief she did.

I had no desire to tell her that Morales had left to care for his partner, who was dying of complications brought on by HIV infection and that Morales had tested positive to the antibodies.

"Well, I hope they have a speedy recovery and a pleasant sojourn in Hawaii. On to work for a moment if I may" She looked up with a question on her face and I nodded for her to continue. "I normally make it a habit to come to the scene of important cases, to examine the victims _in situ_ before they are transported to the morgue. I hope you will be comfortable with me doing that here as well?"

"Why ever would you want to do that Doctor Isles? That means that you will get called out at all manner of times, morning, noon and night, often into some not very pleasant locations" She frowned, rather prettily I noticed.

"Well, the sooner I can start my examination the sooner the victims can start telling me their story. The locations don't bother me; I've seen more than my fair share in Boston I can assure you. I also am used to being called when required. Do you object to me being there?" I shook my head, rather surprised at the positive attitude of our new coroner.

"Oh for heaven's sakes no! I just found it unusual but I would appreciate your input on the scene" Dr Isles smiled and leaned back in the chair, obviously pleased to get my agreement.

"I would also like to take this opportunity to thank you for accepting Jane, Detective Rizzoli, into your Division. She was a bit unsure about relocating to Los Angeles however when she heard about being assigned to Major Crimes she became quite excited about the opportunity" I leant back, looking out at the squad but the subject of our discussion wasn't back yet.

"Really? Detective Rizzoli has quite the track record back in Boston. Your Lieutenant Cavanagh also spoke highly of her skills and experience, as well as pointing out she could be very… driven". Maura smiled softly.

"Yes that would be Jane"

"I also did some research when her name came up and her career has been a very successful one, dealing with a number of high profile major cases. I might add your name pops up in a number of those stories as well" She smiled again, a bit sadly this time.

"You're referring to Charles Hoyt I presume?"

"He was the subject of some of the reports, yes" I saw her hazel eyes narrow slightly, I realised I was taking her back to an unpleasant place.

"Fortunately he is no longer able to ruin any further lives; he certainly destroyed or tried to destroy enough. We still don't know exactly how many deaths he was responsible for" I realised that Doctor Isles still wasn't completely over what had happened.

As I recalled from the media reports Jane Rizzoli had killed Hoyt with a knife to save Maura Isles and both had been injured during the encounter.

I reached over and laid my hand on hers where it sat on the arm of the chair.

"I'm sorry Doctor, please forgive me for being tactless" She smiled warmly and made no move to withdraw her hand from under mine.

"No apology necessary Chief Johnson, it's now history and I've moved on"

_Like hell you have_ I thought as I smiled back.

"As I was saying, thank you for accepting Jane into your squad; if she had not been able to come I would have had to decline the opportunity"

"You're close" I stated, not asked.

"Jane is my best friend; we've worked closely together for several years, even before she saved my life. I was very glad she could come to LA." I leaned back, removing my hand and pushing the hair out of my face, as I bought time to process what I was thinking.

Maura Isles had featured in more than news articles. She often appeared in the society pages; her family was apparently old Boston money and was well known for supporting charities in Boston.

A number of those society articles mentioned her being accompanied by one Detective Jane Rizzoli. I had also seen several gossip columns that suggested that they were more than just good friends.

Well if they were, so be it, at least their relationship seems to be working out I thought sadly. I looked up as I caught Gabriel and the subject of our discussion walk back into the Murder Room.

"Well, I'm very pleased to have you both here, Doctor Isles, please let me introduce you to the squad" I went to stand when she smiled up at me.

"Please call me Maura, having a superior calling me Doctor Isles makes me feel like I'm back at Johns Hopkins and the Dean's unhappy with me" I smiled as she stood up as gracefully as she had sat down.

"Maura it is then and please, feel free to call me Brenda, at least when we're not out on a scene"

"Of course, thank you"

"Why think nothing of it. I see Sergeant Gabriel has returned from the morning coffee run with Detective Rizzoli in tow, so let's get you introduced".

I led Maura out into the Murder Room, where the coffees and donuts were being distributed, noting that most of the squad were casting appraising glances at her as we walked towards them.

"If I can have everyone's attention for a moment, I'd like to introduce or new Medical Examiner, Doctor Maura Isles. She is taking over for Doctor Morales for the next six months"

As I introduced her to each of the team, I noticed Jane watching carefully from one side, taking note of how each person dealt with Maura. She was trying to hide it but she was very protective of Maura. Finally I waved towards the last member of the team.

"And of course you know Detective Rizzoli" Maura smiled warmly at Jane and Jane smiled back, but I could see that they were both holding back, aware they were being watched.

"Hi Maura"

"Good morning Jane"

"Wait, you know each other?" It was Flynn who asked, I thought it would be him. Jane turned to Flynn.

"Yeah, we work together back in Boston"

"Oh, OK" I could practically hear the wheels turning around the room. Maura turned to me and smiled.

"Well, I have to be going; I have a few other people to catch up with and I'm sure we'll meet again soon enough. Thank you Chief Johnson".

"Thank you Doctor Isles, we'll catch up again real soon" I turned back to the squad, noting a quick but meaningful glance shared as Maura passed Jane on the way to the door. I put their relationship to one side as I focused everyone back on the job.

"So tell me gentlemen, well gentlemen and lady, have we turned up anything further on the Kennett family shooting…?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Sharon and Brenda do coffee**

Sharon's viewpoint

Over the last year Sharon Raydor and Brenda Leigh Johnson had established a routine, several nights a week they would meet for coffee after work, urgent cases permitting, to talk over their day. It had started during the Goldman case, when they didn't know who they could trust, so they met where they couldn't be heard.

Both had found no reason to stop meeting after that mess had eventually petered out. Brenda made it clear that she found the catch ups pleasant, while for Sharon it beat heading home to an empty house in the suburbs. After Fritz left Brenda had quietly admitted that she found herself looking forward to them for a sense of continuity, an affirmation that the world hadn't ended when he left.

They hadn't started out looking for friendship, Sharon had entertained more than a few fantasies about Brenda when they first clashed, most of which involved firearms. After the mess that the Ally Moore case had turned into had been resolved, Sharon had quietly admitted to herself that when they weren't arguing they actually worked together extremely well.

Leaning back in her chair, she looked out over the quiet cafe, reflecting back on what had changed since that horrible case. Despite admitting after the case wrapped up that they didn't like each other, Sharon and Brenda actually started being civil to one another, at least where competing cases weren't concerned.

It started when Brenda started sitting next to Sharon at the weekly senior officers meetings, laughing that there would always be an empty seat next to the scary FID Captain and she might as well have someone next to her that Sharon knew disliked her rather than everyone else, who pretended to like her.

Sharon had rolled her eyes at that, making a snide remark about keeping friends close and enemies closer but was secretly pleased that someone cared enough to make fun of it. She smiled quietly to herself at the memory of the look on Pope's face when he walked in to see them sitting together. It had been a combination of disbelief and fear and he spent the rest of the meeting shooting apprehensive glances at them.

Since then they had become first allies, then friends, which had surprised them both. It made sense though, they were the two most senior women in the LAPD, working in a very male-dominated organisation and they needed the ability to be able to hang out and bitch about their job, their cases and their colleagues.

Catching a glimpse of Brenda walking into the café she waved to catch her attention and watched as the blonde weaved her way through to tables to their normal back booth. Taking in Brenda's tailored brown jacket and skirt suit, Sharon smiled to herself; it had been one of her recommendations, as had the heels. As a friend Sharon had made it her goal to get Brenda out of those hideous floral prints she was so attached to. Little by little she was winning that war.

"And what were you smirking at just then Captain Raydor?" I smiled, both at the accent and being caught.

"Just admiring your suit Brenda Leigh, you look good" She blushed slightly as she sat down.

"Well, I did need a new some new clothes and it was easier to follow your advice than have you continuing to rag me about my sweaters and dresses and all" She smiled at me and leaned back as I caught the waitress' eye.

"So how was your day?" I leaned back into the seat, relaxing back into the cushions.

"Relatively quiet, no new incidents over the weekend so I got paperwork done, fitness reports mostly" She pulled a face at the mention of paperwork.

"Shoot, I still have to finish the team's fitreps as well or HR will be nagging me. Again" Her mouth did that quirky twist I'm so used to and I smiled.

"Nothing new there, they end up having to chase you every six months because you're late" She threw her hands up in irritation.

"We catch the bad guys, close cases and get convictions, as far as I'm concerned that's all Major Crimes should be judged on, not some boring paperwork that no one ever reads"

"Hey, I agree, but it's not me you have to convince Brenda" She shrugged and then smiled as Sarah arrived with our order. We've been coming here long enough that they know our order, a hot chocolate for Brenda and an espresso for me. I watched as her eyes squeezed shut at the first taste, the double chocolate exploding on her taste buds. I had to laugh.

"Like blood to a vampire. No that's OK Brenda, you don't have a chocolate addiction, I'm sure you can stop anytime you want to"

"Is it a crime that I like chocolate? Anyway it releases chemicals that are good for you, so there" I give up; how she wasn't a diabetic I have no idea.

"I had an interesting visitor this morning" She looked up with interest.

"Oh really, so did I. You go first" I watched as Brenda suddenly realised what she'd said, while I smiled lazily.

"I always do" She mock frowned at me, then laughed.

"Oh for heaven's sake Sharon, you're terrible" Her hands fluttered. "Get on with it"

"I met our new Media Liaison person today" Her eyes widened.

"What happened to Taylor? He was always so proud posing in front of the camera like a fat peacock, he won't be happy about that"

"I took a sip of my coffee, making her wait.

"You have no idea. Our new media liaison is a woman, an extremely attractive woman I might add" Brenda fell back in her chair, shocked.

"Really; a woman? Oh my lord, Taylor's not going to like that, not one teeny bit". Her grin was pure spite.

"I wasn't kidding about the attractive part either, I could hear my team discussing her after she left and they couldn't understand why someone like her was working for the LAPD". She cocked her head to the side as she reached out to fiddle with her glass.

"This just gets better and better, tell me more" she pleaded.

"Natalie Dearing, blonde, beautiful, could probably work as a model if she wanted to. Coming off several years as Seattle PD's media liaison and was a journalist before that. I swear Brenda, she walked into my squad room and work just stopped, you could hear a pin drop, along with most of the squad's jaws" Brenda cocked her head at me.

"Looks like she made quite the impression, I'll have to meet her".

"You will. She's coming to visit you tomorrow, so keep Flynn and Provenza on short leashes" She started giggling, obviously working on that mental image.

"Flynn and Provenza already have enough to keep them occupied, thank you very much" I frowned

"How so"

"My new detective started this morning, Jane Rizzoli from Boston" I quirked an eyebrow at Brenda, I'd completely forgotten about her arrival.

"And?"

"She's… interesting" I raised an eyebrow.

"Interesting? You're going to have to give me a bit more to work with here Brenda" She looked up, a pensive look on her face.

"Oh, she's tall, slim, long dark hair, dresses very practically, not a skirt sort of person at all I gather. Quite striking and could be very pretty in fact if she wanted to be, very intense. Certainly no shrinking violet either, she and Flynn were giving each other grief over baseball teams this afternoon" I sat back and waited for her to continue.

"But she's had some bad experiences there Sharon; she's got scars on her hands, plus another on her neck. They were put there by Charles Hoyt, the serial killer" I nodded; I remembered the media coverage of the case.

"He was a very nasty piece of work, kill the husband, rape the wife, and then kill and bury her, returning to the body repeatedly later to…" I shuddered; the man was a monster, an overused description but one fitting this time. "He's dead thank God" I added.

Brenda nodded.

"Jane Rizzoli killed him, shoved a scalpel though his chest. Apparently Hoyt fixated on her, and tried to kill her in the prison hospital infirmary"

"Oh"

"Yes, oh"

"Do you think she'll work out in Major Crimes?"

"Boston Homicide couldn't recommend her highly enough, and she has an enviable closure rate, but I have no doubt there are still some demons in there. Maura too" I frowned, Maura?

"Who's Maura?" Brenda looked puzzled for a moment and then smiled.

"Maura Isles, MY interesting visitor. Our new Medical Examiner; she's subbing for Morales while he's away. She's from Boston as well, Rizzoli and she are friends" I sat back for a moment, thinking back to the articles in the media.

"Wasn't she also involved with the Hoyt case?"

"Yep, Hoyt was about to kill her when Rizzoli killed him to protect her. There's a small scar on her neck, you wouldn't notice unless you were looking for it. Hoyt put it there, he wanted to kill her to hurt Rizzoli" Brenda shook her head slowly, her blonde curls catching the lights, with a pensive expression on her face. I reached across the table and placed my hand on hers.

"You've had some experience being on the receiving end of a sicko's attention yourself Brenda, with that arsonist Croelick. You OK?" She nodded and smiled, placing her other hand on top of mine.

"Yep, although I didn't have to resort to a knife to get closure" I smiled to diffuse the tension.

"Yes, you normally use your gun and then chocolate afterwards" It was true, after a shooting Brenda coped with epic chocolate binges. Me, I found quality red wine worked just as well. I decided to change the topic.

"So, what is our new ME like?" Brenda laughed, a happy sound, although she made no move to withdraw her hands from where they held mine.

"Like no coroner you've ever seen. She's really pretty, charming, smart and dresses like a Vogue model" Before I could say anything she shushed me. "Not a word Sharon Raydor. I know you don't like everything I wear but I am changing, slowly. But I will not dress like I just stepped off a catwalk" I raised an eyebrow.

"That good?"

"Heavens yes, I don't know fashion all that well…"

"Do tell"

"Oh be quiet you or you can pay the bill" She looked at me fondly. "I may not be up on my Dior's and Chanel's and what not like you but even I could tell Maura has good taste in expensive clothes"

"So a bit of a clothes horse? Seems a bit odd for a ME"

"She comes very well recommended from Boston. Incidentally, you will probably be seeing her sooner rather than later. She makes it a habit to attend crime scenes"

"Really; why?" Brenda disentangled her hands from mine as she waved for Sarah to come over for our order.

"She said it allows her to get started on telling the victim's story faster, to see the body on site" I tried to not miss the warmth of her hands.

"Different, sounds like she is passionate about her job, but in a good way" Brenda nodded as Sarah arrived to take our dinner order.

"Interesting that they came to LA together, they must be close?" Brenda nodded.

"Nothing was said, but I noticed that Rizzoli's quite protective of our new ME. Maura told me that if Jane hadn't been able to come she would have had to decline as well. She was quite grateful for having her in the squad, so I think there's more there than just good friends" I pursed my lips.

"You OK with that? You mentioned that you weren't happy when Gabriel and Daniels were dating"

"Well, they aren't working in the same team, and what they do in their own time is their business" I relaxed as I listened, I didn't think Brenda was homophobic but I had never asked. She seemed to have no problems with Morales, but some women don't like dealing with lesbians. Then I had a thought.

"That reminds me. Our new media liaison's in a relationship as well" Brenda frowned, trying to follow my leap of logic.

"So?" I smiled.

"With our new FBI liaison officer"

"Oh, they finally got around to replacing Fritz. Bout time, it's been eight months now" I looked over at Brenda, where her gaze was fixed on the tablecloth.

"Brenda, you OK? I'm sorry honey" Shit, Honey? Where did that come from? Brenda looked up with a surprised look, which morphed into a shy smile.

"I'm doing much better, thanks to my friends; the guys have been very supportive and honestly, I wouldn't have been able to cope without your help. I really appreciate you for helping me though Sharon" I smiled in return, and then froze as she spoke in a voice that was pure Southern drawl. "Thank you sweetie"

Sweetie? What the hell? A peal of laughter rang out across the café.

"Oh my goodness Sharon, you should see the look on your face!" I looked down as I felt the blush sweeping across my face. "I thought it was the least I could do, you calling me honey and all" I kept my face down, feeling hot and embarrassed and tingly all at once. Brenda's voice changed, suddenly becoming quieter and concerned.

"Sharon, I'm so very sorry, I didn't mean to embarrass you, Are you OK" I looked up to a pair of concerned brown eyes deep enough to drown in. I nodded.

"Sorry, you just caught me by surprise" Brenda smiled, her hand seeking out mine on the table.

"I just thought that if you were comfortable enough to have a pet name for me, I should have one for you. I'm sorry if I've upset you". I smiled back at her.

"It's OK; it was just a surprise hearing it from you"

"Well, you started it, I don't mind though. It sounds good, coming from you. It's nice to think I have a friend who cares enough to talk to me like that"

I smiled, while butterflies chased themselves around my stomach. This was my friend, my only good friend, and I was all flustered because she used a term of endearment? I liked her, a lot, but I had long ago decided to keep it friendly; Brenda was straight as a line and not interested.

"Anyway, what's this about our new FBI Liaison you were telling me?"

"Oh, well SHE is our media liaison's partner. Apparently she was the Seattle PD liaison and when she got a transfer to LA, Natalie Dearing applied for the media liaison role to be able to move here with her."

"Oh, that is interesting, Taylor won't like that. Not only replaced by an attractive woman, but an attractive lesbian. No he won't like that at all" Her mouth quirked again. "What's the FBI woman's name?"

"I didn't get the chance to ask, all I heard was Ana" I shrugged. "No doubt you will meet her soon enough"

Brenda nodded.

"Sure enough I will. Hopefully we can start gettin' some real cooperation from the Bureau, lord knows it's been lacking in recent times" I was about to reply when dinner arrived, I watched Brenda enthusiastically tear into her cottage pie with amusement.

"Skip lunch today?" She shook her head.

"No, just been looking forward to this…" She waved her knife around, encompassing the meal, the chat, everything. "…all day" her voice changed again, taking on that exaggerated Brenda Leigh drawl

"So, sweetie, tell me, what else has been happening?" I had to laugh at her sly smile, before taking up the challenge.

"Well, _honey…"_ I exaggerated the word; "I did hear something interesting about two officers in Narcotics that couldn't possibly be true…"

The rest of the meal was spent gossiping and laughing, just another normal Monday night.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N** This story is rated M for a reason, this chapter being one of them.

This chapter contains depictions of consenting adults doing what consenting adults do when they feel like it, so if sexual content isn't your thing, please skip the chapter and move on.

I've tried to write this story so these chapters aren't completely integral to the storyline, however skipping them means that you won't get the full character development.

As always, the choice is yours.

**Jane and Maura discuss their day**

Jane's viewpoint

I walked in through the door to our rented condo, calling out for Maura as I closed the door behind me.

I heard her voice sing out from the kitchen, as Jo Friday came barrelling around the corner, yapping hysterically. I picked her up, giving her a quick hug to calm her down and walked into the kitchen to find Maura leaning over the kitchen counter away from me, engrossed in a cookbook.

I had to stop for a moment to admire the frankly delightful view in front of me.

Maura had changed from work clothes into what for Maura were casual clothes. I have to say the shorts and polo shirt she was wearing seemed anything but casual, especially as I ran my eyes up her legs and over her ass, tightly outlined as she leaned over the counter.

Not being one to miss an opportunity, especially one this good, I put Jo down, dropped my jacket over a chair and stepped up behind Maura, sliding my hands up around her hips and across her tummy. She giggled and trapped my hands before they could head higher.

"Why Jane, there must be something in the California air, you've been frisky every night since we got here" I leaned forward to nibble at her earlobe, hearing her murmur in pleasure as she leaned back into me.

"Why Doctor Isles, it takes two to tango. I don't recall you complaining last night; or yesterday after lunch; or yesterday morning; or Saturday night after we got back from dinner…" I ground my hips into her, pulling her back into me, to be rewarded as Maura leaned back and allowed my hands to wander under her shirt.

"Well, we did have to ''break in', as you put it, each room of the house. I think we've covered pretty much all of it by now" Maura said. I grinned into her hair as I realised she wasn't wearing a bra.

""I think you've adapted to the California lifestyle a bit too quickly Maura. The prim and proper doctor I knew in Boston didn't usually run around without a bra" I palmed the items in question and was rewarded with a groan as her hand came up and tangled in my hair, pulling me towards her neck. I proceeded to run my tongue up and down her neck, interspersed with kisses, breathing in a heady combination of perfume and her natural scent.

"Back in Boston we had to worry about your mother walking in on us" she stammered. I grinned even wider as her voice became more breathy, while I kissed my way down to her pulse point.

"Well, that's not an issue here" I tweaked her by now very hard nipples between my fingers, loving the moan that escaped her lips as I did.

"No, it's not, it is it?"

"No, it isn't" I spun her round and bent to kiss her, our tongues sliding round each other.

I felt her arms slide around my neck as I palmed her ass, feeling her nipples poking through the material of her shirt and my blouse.

I had just decided that there was too much clothing between her nipples and my mouth when a loud chime from the oven timer rang out, distracting us both.

Maura leaned back, her breath a bit shaky and her face and neck flushed.

"Hold that thought Jane; we'll pick up again where we left off after dinner"

"I have all I want to eat right here on hand" I growled, watching her shiver. With an effort she twisted out of my grasp and stepped over to the oven.

"You need to eat darling. You have to keep your strength up" I growled again as Maura bent over to open the over door, giving me an even better view.

"I need strength to deal with you" I caught a flash of a wicked smile as she grabbed a set of gloves to bring a dish out of the over.

"Now Jane, research suggests that a balanced diet supports a strenuous lifestyle, something which you should appreciate, given how strenuously you have been working out the last few days" I grinned lazily.

"Well, I suppose fucking you morning noon and night qualifies as strenuous activity. Mind you, it beats a gym workout any day, so I can't complain" She gave me that quirked eyebrow thing she does that I love.

"I doubt you have many reasons to complain Jane, given how soundly you were sleeping this morning. If I hadn't been awake to do some yoga before work and wake you up after you slept through the alarm, you would have been late for your first day at work" I watched as Maura lifted the lid on a casserole dish and the kitchen was filled with a mouth-watering aroma of French lamb and cannellini bean _casserole_.

"Well whose fault was that, Miss One AM, one more time?" Maura giggled as I followed her to the table and sat down. For the next few minutes we concentrated on dinner, before slowing down enough to discuss our first day at work.

Apparently the morgue and its staff had been well managed by her predecessor, as Maura found nothing to complain about there. The idea that the Medical Examiner might want to attend the crime scene had been something of a surprise for her staff, but I knew that no one would want to get between Maura and the victim.

"What do you think of Deputy Chief Johnson?" I looked up.

"She seems pleasant enough, though I have a hard time getting used to that accent. It sounds like something from Gone with the Wind". Maura smiled.

"I actually liked it; I find it easy to listen to. What are her officers like? I really didn't get much of a chance to chat to them and it's a much larger team than Homicide back home"

"They seem OK; Provenza and Flynn are close, real old school cops. Sanchez has the whole Latin machismo thing down pat, Buzz Watson, the electronics guy, is quiet, I think he may be gay actually, he pinged my 'gaydar' pretty heavily. Gabriel seems a good guy, very smart, he's obviously pretty close to the Chief" I thought for a moment. "You'd like Tao though; he spouts off knowledge like someone else I can think of" I smiled fondly at Maura, who was picking at the last of her lamb.

"As for the Chief, well she's a lot more polite than Cavanagh back home, calls everyone by their rank, like '_Detective Sanchez_' and '_Lieutenant Flynn_'. Everything is a request, even when she could just order us around. '_Please'_ and '_thank you_' and '_would you be so kind_', it's a bit weird. Mind you, everyone jumps when she asks for something" Maura nodded.

"I did some research on Chief Johnson after meeting her. She really is quite impressive. She is the most senior woman in the force, but seems very feminine, despite having to compete in an extremely male-dominated environment, plus run a division that until now was all male. She was apparently a serious contender for the position of LAPD Chief before it ended up with Chief Pope".

I nodded thoughtfully, wondering about Chief Johnson. I'd never worked under a female boss before, hell I had been the first woman in Homicide and copped a lot of grief for it over the years. I had dealt with it by being better than the men around me, where the Chief had done the same but stayed a woman. Different ways of coping I guess. Maura noticed I had drifted away.

"Jane, are you all right?" I smiled.

"Yeah, was just thinking about having a female boss. It'll be different I guess" I shrugged. "I don't doubt her abilities; she's built up a hell of a reputation for handling difficult cases. Gabriel said Major Crimes was specifically set up for her to lead and they have a great closure rate. He also said there was a lot I could learn from her"

"Apparently she was a trained interrogator for the CIA before she moved into police work, her squad seems to treat her interrogations as a spectator sport" Maura got a quizzical look on her face. "What?"

"Oh, just thinking she didn't fit the stereotypical image portrayed in popular culture of a CIA agent, all men in mirrored sunglasses or femme fatales" I had to laugh.

"Maura, I thinck all those action movies I've made you watch may have given you the wrong impression. Hollywood's idea of real life is nothing like reality"

"Well, we are now living in the city where those dreams are made" I pulled a face.

""You've been looking at websites for studio tours haven't you? She smiled at me happily and nodded.

"We are here for six months Jane; it would be a shame to miss out on everything that California has to offer, the studios, Disneyland, Grauman's Chinese Theatre, the galleries, the wineries…"

"The shopping; Rodeo Drive, Wiltshire Boulevard, Melrose Avenue" I wagged my finger at her. "I know you Maura; you've probably got the GPS locations of every high end store in LA programmed in"

"Well, of course, we have to experience all of the LA lifestyle Jane". I sighed, a bit theatrically, but shopping was a Maura Isles specialty. Truth be told I don't mind, as she always looked spectacular in whatever she bought and honestly, watching Maura was one of my favourite things.

"Chief Johnson looked very nice in her suit; I wonder where she got it" Maura mused.

"Well you could always ask her I suppose, but it seemed a bit conservative for you" I teased.

"I can be conservative Jane, when the situation calls for it" I grinned back at her.

"Of course you can, miss no bra" She blushed slightly.

"Well, it was rather warm when I got home, and I decided to be comfortable. I didn't think you would complain"

"Hell no, I like the weather here, at least we get to avoid a Boston winter, so no complaints there. Hey, if it means I get to see you in a skimpy bikini out by the pool, then I might consider staying longer" She narrowed her eyes as she looked at me.

"Only if I get to see you in one too"

"Oops, didn't bring one, I'll have to skinny dip"

"Well, I have no objections to that, although I am not sure I want the neighbours seeing you naked" I snickered.

"Afraid they might be scared off" She ran her eyes over me possessively..

"No, I prefer to keep that view all to myself thank you" God I love possessive Maura. That look sends shivers up my spine. She looked at me for a bit. Considering what I had said.

"So, would you be interested if we had an extension here?" I pursed my lips.

"It depends; I would miss Ma and Frankie, plus Korsak and Frost, although I suppose they could come visit. Cavanagh would throw a fit though. On the other hand, maybe I could learn from Chief Johnson, her squad really respect her, which surprised me" Maura nodded.

"Well, she seems very thorough; Dr Morales' notes said that she would often attend autopsies for her cases" I frowned.

"Sounds a bit obsessive, isn't that why we have you there?" Maura looked thoughtful for a moment and then smiled.

"Well, it means she won't be badgering me for an answer, if she is sitting in as I work, unlike someone else I can think of" I stood to collect the dishes.

"Oh, is someone badgering you Doctor Isles? Let me know who it is and I'll deal with them" Maura threw an amused glance over her shoulder as she carried the casserole dish over to the fridge.

"Oh yes, this insufferable woman, very arrogant, swaggers everywhere behaving like she's in charge, very demanding of my time and attention. Can you do something about her Detective?" I pretended to ponder for a movement while I dumped everything into the dishwasher.

"Nah, she sounds too tough to mess with, you should just give her everything she wants" Maura smiled indulgently.

"Everything?" I nodded seriously.

"Everything"

"But what if she wants to take advantage of me?" Her voice was getting throaty, which I loved to hear, it was a voice she saved just for me.

I sauntered towards her, running my eyes very obviously up and down her body, then looked into her lovely hazel eyes, which were staring back at me.

"Then give her what she wants"

I made a grab for her but she squealed and dashed into the hall towards the bedrooms, while I took my time following. Maura wasn't going anywhere tonight.

By the time I got to the bedroom, Maura was lying sprawled on the bed, looking back at me. I stopped in the doorway and looked at her, feeling the arousal start all over again. We'd been lovers for almost a year, but I still hungered for her.

"Remember I said give her everything she wants?" My voice was deep and hoarse with desire. Maura just nodded. "Well, she wants you naked and wet" Maura closed her eyes for a second and shivered.

I started to unbutton my shirt as Maura rolled off the bed. Slowly, watching me through heavy lidded eyes, Maura unbuttoned her shorts and then eased the zipper ever so slowly down, before dropping it to the floor, pooled around her feet. I'd often thought that if I had been a man, Maura would have been able to get me hard with just a look. Hell, I'd be rock hard right now, just watching her.

Taking in the delicate lace panties, I unbuttoned faster, watching as she turned away, giving me a good look at her spectacular glutes. I may not particularly like yoga, but no way can I argue against the results. Slowly Maura pulled the shirt up over her head, exposing her lovely back and giving me a tantalising peek at her breasts.

I hurriedly peeled off my boots and socks then undid my slacks as she bent over and slowly pushed her panties off her hips and down her legs to the floor. I felt my mouth go dry as I watched. Maura Isles was an addiction I could never get enough of and never wanted to.

Looking over her shoulder, Maura smiled at me, before slithering down onto the bed, lying face down with her eyes closed; waiting for me. I hurriedly pushed my sodden panties off and walked towards the bed.

I kneeled as I got to the bed, kissing the sole of her left foot, feeling her squirm. I had learned Maura was ticklish on the soles of her feet months ago and had been using that to my advantage ever since. I could hear her try and stifle a giggle as I moved to the other foot, before starting to work my way up her calves.

This was terrain I was intimately familiar with, having explored it so many, many times. Each new journey was a delight, spurred on by the sounds I could bring from her, with my tongue, fingers and body.

I worked my way up her knees, paying special attention to a spot on her left knee that must have been directly wired to her libido. Sure enough, as I kissed and sucked the spot, a groan sounded from the top of the bed, and she shifted restlessly, needfully, under me. I smacked her ass and told her to be quiet, before moving to her thighs. As I ran my tongue up and down her wonderfully toned thighs, I could smell Maura's arousal, sending my pulse racing even faster, if that was possible.

With a quick move, I flipped her over, before using my elbows to force her legs apart, opening her to my view. I licked my lips in anticipation as I could see the wetness streaking her inner thighs. Moving forward I slid my tongue along the inside of her tight, toned thighs, tasting her delicious arousal and causing her to squirm under me.

"Please Jane" she stammered. I smiled, as my tongue continued to lap away at her thighs, resolutely avoiding what she wanted.

"Please what Maura?"

"I need it, please love, please" I loved teasing her, hearing her want me.

"What do you need Maura, you'll have to tell me" Maura groaned and her hand grabbed my hair, holding me as she thrust her groin at me.

"This. Your tongue, please Jane". The need in her voice was so raw I couldn't tease her any more. I flicked my tongue out, barely touching her clit, dragging a raw moan from Maura's lips.

I ran my tongue up the folds, gathering her wetness and savouring the taste. Maura tasted as good as she looked. Her arousal was turning me on even more as I felt myself starting to drip.

I felt her shudder as I thrust my tongue within her folds, before returning to her clit, gently flicking it back and forth with my tongue. I could hear her murmurs and feel her shudders as she responded to my touch. She was so responsive, god I love her.

I added my fingers, sliding first one finger, then two inside her, feeling the hot walls slide apart around them. Once I had a good rhythm, sliding them in and out in time with my tongue flicking over her clit, I looked up to see her head thrown back and her eyes closed, her fingers playing with her stiff nipples, tugging and twisting them.

I smiled to myself, she wouldn't be long now, as I slid a third finger in to join the other two, hearing a long, drawn out moan as she was opened wider. I started to slide in and out faster, increasing the attention to her clit at the same rate, to be rewarded as I heard her moans increase in volume in response.

Her hips started to rise off the bed, as she started to groan and moan out my name, together with a string of profanity that would shock anyone who only knew the prim and proper Doctor Isles. Maura had a filthy mouth in bed and I loved it.

Feeling her trembling on the brink, I suddenly latched onto her clit with my lips, sucking it in and swirling around the nub with my tongue, as I curled my fingers onto her G spot. As her moaning reached a crescendo, her thighs slammed shut on my head, as she practically levitated off the bed.

Then I held on for dear life as Maura writhed under me, shuddering and shaking, twisting and turning as her orgasm tore through her, held on as her shuddering slowly subsided to trembling and eventually stillness.

Slowly I disentangled myself and slid up the bed, cuddling up to a partially comatose Maura. I propped myself on one elbow to look down on her face, so tranquil, happy that I got to see her like this, that I had made her like this. Maura's orgasms were always volcanic and it took her a little time to pull herself together afterwards.

I was happy to look her over, pleased that the warm weather meant I didn't have to cover her, allowing my eyes to roam over Maura's stunning body. Yes, all that yoga had paid very sizable dividends.

Eventually a small smile awoke on her, followed by her eyes slowly opening, to gaze up at me. I smiled down at her. Eventually she recovered enough to speak in a soft voice.

"Hello"

"Hi yourself, sleepy head" She snuggled into me.

"Not sleepy, happy" I knew I was grinning like a fool but didn't care, blissed out post-orgasmic Maura was so soft and beautiful and I made her like that. I just wanted to wrap her in my arms and never let her go, so I did. She snuggled even closer, wrapping her arms around me.

"Your turn, soon"

"Take your time baby, I'm not going anywhere"


	6. Chapter 6

**The first sniper attack part 1**

Anastasia's viewpoint

It wasn't the cell going off that woke me; Natalie crawling over me to answer it did that.

I heard her take the call, somehow sounding crisp, cheerful and above all awake, god I wish I could do that out of a sound sleep. It was obviously an official call, as I heard her ask the despatcher to text the address through and end the call, before looking over at me.

"Sorry Tsarina, I didn't mean to wake you"

'S'ok, next time remind me to get you to leave the phone on your side of the bed. What's up?"

"Major Crimes just got a call out to a murder, some women's been shot in a high rise apartment block. Close your eyes for a moment, I'm turning on the lights" Turning on the bedside lamp Nat stood up and headed for the closet as I sat up. Looking at the clock I realised it was after 2 AM. We had tumbled into bed less than 3 hours ago and been asleep for barely two.

"Might as well come with you, I'm supposed to see Major Crimes today, so may as well see them in action" Nat looked back from the closet, where she was putting on a bra.

"Are you sure? I can get there myself" I rolled out of bed and walked over to my half of the closet. Just then her cell chimed, indicating a text had arrived with the address.

"Yeah, it's fine, besides, we've only just got here and I'm not so sure what sort of neighbourhood you're heading into, so I'd feel better if I tagged along" She leaned over and wrapped her hand around my neck, pulling me into a quick kiss.

"Thank you, that's really sweet and I appreciate it" I laughed as I pulled away to get dressed.

"Well, I'm awake and as we don't have time for something more fun we might as well do some work"

20 minutes later we were in the car and programming the address into the GPS, 30 minutes later we pulled up amongst a sea of black and whites and unmarked Crown Vic's, bathing the area in a lurid wash of red and blue light. It all felt so familiar. '_Same shit, different city_' I thought.

As we got out I noticed at least two news crews filming the front of the building and nodded to Nat.

"Your first catch of the day" She eyed the crews and nodded slightly.

"Shooting the building for establishing shots because no one's talking to them yet. Let's find out what's got everyone out of bed".

We walked under the tape, flashing badges and passes at the uniforms before walking into the foyer. A sergeant checking people in took our names and told us to head to the 24th floor.

"Nice building" I murmured as we rode the elevator.

"Hmmm, expensive too, looks like real marble"

The doors opened on the 24th floor and we stepped out to be directed down a hall and round a corner to an open door. Pausing to look inside, a very nice-looking apartment greeted us, with voices coming from further inside. I gestured to Nat.

"After you, I'm just the taxi service" She smiled quickly and led the way in.

The living area was a mess. There was blood and brains scattered across one wall, together with a large divot in the concrete wall, at least ten feet from a woman's body on the floor. The smell of blood was everywhere, together with the other, even less attractive smells that accompany violent death.

A tall black man was speaking with an attractive blonde woman in the centre of the room, while an equally striking blonde examined the victim. The window had shattered, leaving glass fragments scattered across the floor.

"At about 1.20 the neighbour heard the glass shatter and a loud bang. He looked round the edge of the balcony, saw the mess and our vic's feet and called 911 at…" He consulted his notebook; "…1.24. First response was here eight minutes later and broke down the door" The blonde's mouth quirked up.

"1.20's a bit late to still be up on a Monday night…" She grimaced "…well Tuesday morning actually, isn't it Detective Gabriel? What's their story?" The detective smiled.

"The neighbour, a Robert Collier, is a computer gamer Chief. Apparently plays online video games to all hours of the morning. He's a university student who schedules his classes to allow him to play late and sleep late" I took a closer look at the women in the peach trench coat; obviously this was Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson.

She was pretty, in her 40's but striking. Her voice was a honeyed Georgia accent, but starting to lose its edge, probably from years of living in LA. As I looked around the room I saw the blonde kneeling by the body shake her head at the mess. There wasn't much left of the victim's head, most of it was smeared across the wall. She looked up and spoke to the Chief.

"I'm sorry Chief Johnson, but in this case there's not much I can tell you that you can't see at a glance. Cause of death is a high velocity projectile striking the left temple, with massive trauma as it exited the right side of the cranium just below the right ear" She gracefully climbed to her feet and pulled off her blue medical gloves. "At least it was quick; the victim would have died instantly"

"Well thank you anyway Doctor Isles, I appreciate you coming all the way out here at an ungodly hour of the morning" I took a closer look, so this was Doctor Maura Isles. She was dressed in dark slacks, green silk blouse a grey tailored coat and wore a set of strappy high heels that wouldn't have been out of place on a model strutting down a catwalk. Yes, that was definitely Maura Isles.

I scanned for Jane Rizzoli, but didn't see anyone who fitted the description. I looked back as Chief Johnson spoke again.

"So, where did the shot come from gentlemen, there's nothing with a line of sight close enough to shoot from. Did someone shoot from the next balcony along?" An older man with a grim face spoke up.

"It's possible Chief. The apartment to our left was empty; the owners are apparently out of town, at least according to the building super"

"Lieutenant Flynn, could you please check to see if there are surveillance camera's covering the corridors, elevators and fire stairs. If the shooter was in the next room, then they must have got in here somehow. And can we get into that apartment please?" He nodded.

"Sanchez and Rizzoli are getting the super to open it up, should be inside any time now. Provenza's chasing up any surveillance footage"

"Whatever they used, it packed a hell of a punch, its buried deep inside this wall. In fact it's hit an intersection with another wall and it's got to be at least six inches deep in there" I looked over to an Asian officer who was shining a torch into the impact divot.

Getting a good look at the impact crater I felt a chill as realisation hit. I'd seen that before.

"What weapon packs that sort of punch?" It was Detective Gabriel. I looked around for a moment, hoping someone else would answer before reluctantly clearing my throat. Faces turned towards me, including Chief Johnson's.

"And who might you be, if I may I ask?" I smiled and took a step forward, raising my hand to wave weakly.

"Special Agent Anastasia Romanov, the Bureau's liaison to the LAPD" Johnson raised one eyebrow as she regarded me coolly.

"And what exactly is the Bureau's interest in this case Agent Romanov?"

"None that I'm aware of Chief, I'm just the transport for someone else" Natalie stepped forward and spoke.

"That would be me Chief Johnson. Natalie Dearing, I'm your new media liaison and Agent Romanov was kind enough to deliver me to the scene" She stepped forward and shook the Chief's hand. I saw Chief Johnson giving Nat an appraising glance, she wasn't the only one, every man in the room was doing the same thing. Fortunately I had gotten used to it by now and I couldn't blame them really.

Nat was wearing dark skinny jeans and heels which made her legs look even longer than normal, a crisply tailored white blouse and a dark blue jacket that contrasted with her long blonde hair. How she could roll out of bed and look that good after a few minutes in front of a mirror was a skill I hadn't managed to acquire, lord knows I'd tried.

"And what brings you to my crime scene Ms Dearing?"

"Standard operating procedure for Major Crimes' cases Chief; I get the call when you do. Hopefully I'm not needed but I'm here if you need me to keep the media off your back. It lets you concentrate on the case while I distract the media". Chief Johnson looked sceptical; I wondered if she was thinking Pope had assigned Nat to keep an eye on Major Crimes.

"Is it just Major Crime's cases that you turn up to?"

"No Chief, I also respond to FID and the Gang Task Force cases as well. I expect to be busy" Chief Johnson nodded and smiled, obviously accepting Nat's answer.

"I 'spect you will. Well, nice to meet you both, even if it's not under the best of circumstances" She turned back to me. "You were saying Agent Romanov?"

"I would suggest that the weapon used was an anti-material rifle, firing a 50 calibre round. The penetration of the wall supports that calibre round" Tao nodded.

"Agent… Romanov?" He looked to me for confirmation and I nodded; "…might be right Chief. Most bullets get stopped by an inch or two of concrete, not this baby" Flynn looked at me with scepticism

"Anti-material rifle, you're talking about a snipers rifle?"

"Not really, a sniper's rifle is designed to take out soft targets, whereas an anti-material rifle is designed to damage hard targets such as unarmoured vehicles, helicopters and aircraft, exposed equipment such as radio gear and radar and also for punching straight through body armour and bulletproof glass. Some can even make a good try at penetrating light armoured vehicles" I nodded at our victim.

"Needless to say, their effect on an unarmoured target is pretty horrible" Maura Isles nodded.

"The injury suffered by the victim could have been caused by such a weapon. Much of the right rear hemisphere of the cranium has disintegrated and there is evidence of massive hydrostatic shock to the soft tissue"

"And the entry wound Doctor?" Chief Johnson asked. Doctor Isles slowly shook her head.

"The projectile carried away a significant amount of the area surrounding the entry point, so I couldn't confirm the exact size of the calibre weapon used"

Gabriel looked back out the open frame that had once held the sliding glass door to the balcony before speaking.

"But there's nothing with line of sight, no buildings that overlook the apartment"

"Yes, there's no building within range, but you could have shot from a position on the ground some distance away" Flynn waved angrily at the gaping hole.

"No way, the closest patch of open ground that could see into here must be over a mile away" I nodded, understanding he wasn't angry at me but the implications.

"I've heard of shots from over a mile away, against moving targets"

"Where?" Gabriel asked.

"Iraq and Afghanistan and they were against moving targets. Against a stationary target, with a laser rangefinder and a serious scope; you are looking at much longer range"

"How much longer" It was the Chief.

"A Canadian sniper hit a Taliban insurgent in Afghanistan at over 2,800 metres, that's about a mile and a half, against a moving target. If the target had been stationary he probably could have hit him even further away"

As one, everyone turned to look out at the darkness. Finally the Chief spoke softly.

"Oh my Lord"


	7. Chapter 7

**The first sniper attack part 2**

Brenda's viewpoint

"Oh my Lord" My voice sounded numb, even to me. I turned back to Agent Romanov.

"So we may have a sniper running around Los Angeles with a weapon that can kill at a mile and a half?" She nodded, looking grim.

"It's been a scenario that has been worrying the Bureau for at least a decade. The ability to reach out and touch a target at that range is an ongoing nightmare" She shrugged before continuing. "I'm sure you can imagine what the Secret Service think about it"

I nodded, Kennedy had been shot at less than 300 feet, trying to guard against a shot from a mile or more away was almost impossible. I turned as Detective's Sanchez and Rizzoli walked into the room.

"The apartment next door's clean Chief, no sign of forced entry" Sanchez said. Rizzoli then spoke up.

"No one's been on the balcony recently, the owner has some kind of 'zen garden' thing happening there, most of the balcony's covered in sand and rocks and the only tracks are from birds"

"I see. Sergeant Gabriel, would you please speak to our other neighbour, the computer gamer and see if you can work out how a university student can afford a place in what seems to be fairly pricey accommodation. Lieutenant Tao, is there some way we can confirm that he was online playing these games at the time he says he was?" He frowned.

"Depends on the game Chief, some online games monitor the players actions in real time. It depends which one he was playing. If he was playing one of the ones where he was interacting with other players directly, maybe chatting over the net while gaming, well that would help" I nodded.

"If you could take a look please, Lieutenant" Michael turned and walked out the room, followed by David.

"Lieutenant Flynn, what do we have on our victim?" He flipped open his notebook.

"Not much Chief; the apartment's apparently rented to a Marianella Chiarino, 31, an Argentinean national. Occupation's listed as actress".

I looked around the apartment, taking in the nice décor, to see a shot of a strikingly attractive woman, presumably our victim, sitting with her back to the camera in a chair labelled 'Director'. She was looking over her shoulder at the camera, smiling.

I looked over to the body, noting Agent Romanov was squatting near the victim, talking quietly with Maura Isles.

"Doctor, are there any signs of a wedding ring?" She bent to examine the left hand closely before replying.

"No ring or signs of having worn one there Chief Johnson" I turned back to Andy.

"See if we can find a boyfriend or next of kin, if we can I'd like to handle the notification" He nodded.

"You got it Chief" I paused for a second, thinking.

"Can you also find out who her agent was please, and if she was working at the moment" He nodded, taking notes.

I turned to face Agent Romanov; taking her in. Taller than Maura, shorter than either Rizzoli or Dearing, mid-length dark hair, indeterminate ethnic heritage, quite pretty, with what appeared to be a nice figure build hiding under her dark slacks, trainers and FBI wind cheater.

"You seem to have had some knowledge of these weapons, Agent Romanov. Have you encountered them before?" Both Marua and Anastasia stood and turned towards me.

"I did tours in Afghanistan and Iraq" She shrugged. "I was an MP before joining the Bureau" she explained. I found myself staring into her eyes, they were a strange, piercing shade of grey, I could imagine people loosing themselves in them. I tore my gaze away and looked down to our victim as she continued.

"The 50 cal was a standard AMR for several allied forces, the Canadians, Australians and British all used them as did the Army, Navy and Marines"

"Are they legal here in the States?" She shook her head.

"Not in California Ma'am, but in quite a few other states they can be purchased over the counter from gun shops" I smiled to myself at the 'Ma'am'. You can take the girl out of the military…

"They're not cheap, about 10 or 12 thousand dollars, plus the scope and ammunition" I chewed the inside of my cheek, considering the information we had.

"Once we extract the shell from the wall and get the ballistics report, please ask the Bureau to see if they can run down when and where it was sold" She nodded.

"Chief Johnson?" I looked up at Maura's voice. "If you don't mind I would like to have the body moved the body down to the morgue, I can have an autopsy report up to you in the morning" I smiled at her as I ran my hand through my hair.

"Thank you Doctor Isles, but take your time. I think we all know what killed her" She smiled and walked out of the room. Agent Romanov spoke up again.

"To get the sort of accuracy needed for this kind of shot, you're looking for a trained shooter, not an amateur. Probably someone with military training"

"Good point. Detective Sanchez, would you please work with Agent Romanov to track down how many current and former military snipers there are living in the Los Angeles area" They looked at each other and nodded, before heading over to a corner of the room to chat.

"Detective Rizzoli, could you please work with the FBI and Detective Sanchez to chase up gun shops that might have sold such a weapon to anyone on that list of snipers" She nodded and wandered over to the same corner. I looked around, wondering what else I had missed, and noticed our media liaison leaning against a wall, listening quietly.

"Why Miss Dearing, I completely forgot you were here, I'm sorry, how can I help you?" She levered herself off the wall and flashed me a brilliant smile as she stepped out of the partial shadow and directly into the light's set up by the crime techs.

Oh my goodness, I reminded myself to chide Sharon for her understatement, now I could get a good look at Natalie Dearing in some decent light I could see she was stunning.

All piled blonde hair and blue eyes, high cheekbones and a wide, generous mouth, on top of a body that had attracted the eye of every man in the room.

Oh dear lord. I hoped she was good at her job; I didn't want to think that Will only hired her because he was thinking with his dick, although he had a track record of that in the past.

"Not at all Chief, I try and stay out of the way until needed. Besides, you were busy" I nodded, appreciating her patience. "Basically, I just want to run past you an agreed statement for the media downstairs"

"The press is here? Aw shoot, already?" She nodded sympathetically.

"Afraid so, it looked like a couple of 24-hour TV news teams, looking for some filler"

"Well, I don't want any mention of a sniper, last thing we need is another Beltway sniper panic" She nodded again.

"Of course; I will have to explain your presence here but I can tell them that there were certain irregularities in this case and you were asked to investigate" I was shocked, explain me?

"What do you mean explain my presence, whatever for?"

"Chief Johnson, like it or not, you are a high profile media celebrity here in LA" She smiled warmly at me before continuing.

"I doubt that there's a journalist in this city worth their salt that wouldn't recognise you on sight after the high profile cases you and your squad have dealt with" I watched her piercing blue eyes run over me quickly before returning to my face. "Besides, you're not exactly easily forgettable" I felt myself flushing at her attention. Did she just flirt with me?

"Well, thank you, I think. So what should we be saying?"

"Well, I suggest that we state that a young woman has died of a gunshot wound, but of course, we are not at liberty to release anything further at this time. We can provide a complete statement later today once the victim's family have been notified. That should buy us some time, till noon at least"

"Thank you, if you could handle that I would be grateful" I started to turn away when she called me back.

"One last thing, if I may?" I nodded.

"Might I suggest that you and the rest of your squad exit from the rear while I keep them distracted out the front. If they don't see you they may not ask about Major Crimes involvement" Her warm mouth quirked sardonically. "Well, it's probably a faint hope but we can at least try"

"Ok then, we can do that. Detective Sanchez, could you please let the team know that we are leaving via the tradesman's entrance once we finish?" Julio grinned quickly, nodded and walked out of the room. She smiled again.

"Thank you. I was planning to come and see you later this morning Chief, but I suppose this works just as well" I nodded slowly.

"I expect we will be seeing you quite regularly Miss Dearing" She laughed quietly.

"Please, call me Natalie, or Nat. I don't hold a rank and I hate formality unless it's necessary"

"Of course, Natalie it is then" She smiled her thanks at me, nodded and walked over to where Jane Rizzoli and Agent Romanov were standing.

I found myself wondering about our new media liaison. She was everything Sharon had said, and more. Plus it seems that Pope may actually have been thinking with the department's rather than his, best interest at heart. If so it was well overdue.

As I watched, Agent Romanov saw her coming and stepped aside to include her in the discussion with Jane. Natalie apologised for interrupting and leaned in to whisper to the FBI agent. I saw her hand resting on the agent's arm and then Romanov reach up to take her hand. It was such a natural thing I don't think either realised they were doing it.

I also noticed Jane taking it all in with a neutral expression and wondered. If she and Maura were more than friends, they were very careful about it. Perhaps she was surprised that Natalia and Romanov; Anastasia I corrected myself, were quite so open.

Just then Maura and several of her team walked in to remove the body and I saw a look pass between her and Jane. Jane raised an eyebrow and Maura responded with a slight smile that obviously spoke volumes. They were obviously way more than friends, if you were looking closely.

Jane suddenly noticed I was watching and flushed slightly, looking away for a moment. '_Busted_' I thought to myself.

When she glanced back I smiled at her, letting her know I was ok with it. She shyly smiled back and turned back to the discussion she was having as Natalie finished up with Anastasia and walked out of the room. I noticed several sets of eyes followed her out.

'_Sorry guys she's taken_'. The thought taken popped into my head unbidden, tinged with a flash of dark humour.

This was going to be an interesting dynamic I thought as I watched the coroner's assistants prepare the body for transport as Maura supervised.

I had gone from being the only woman in a team of men, to now being orbited by a number of seriously attractive women. My eyes flitted from Maura to the corner where Jane and Anastasia were standing, heads close as they texted each other their contact details.

I noted that both of them had a coiled, restless energy, even standing still you could see it. I wondered if that was what had attracted Maura and Natalie to them. Obviously they were something special; after all they had caught the attention of two exceptionally beautiful women.

For a moment I stood there, wondering what it would be like to be like that, to have someone like a Jane or a Natalie in my life, to love them and be loved in return. It would be an interesting experience, being with a woman.

Shaking my head, wondering where that thought had come from; I banished the images and concentrated on wrapping up the crime scene.


	8. Chapter 8

**Ana and Jane chat**

Jane's viewpoint

The morning had started early and I could already tell it was going to end late.

Ballistics had confirmed that the sniper was using a Barrett 50 Cal AMR, so I was stuck calling gun shops that may have sold the weapon.

A call to the manufacturer had determined that there were no more than 100-120 shops in America who sold them, so I spent hours on the phone chasing them down. Mostly they were happy to cooperate, sending lists of purchasers through, although a few had required a bit of incentive, which the Bureau's Agent Romanov had been happy to provide, the FBI provided a whole different level of leverage, opening otherwise immovable doors.

I was pleased to find working with the Bureau here was a much easier experience than back in Boston. Mind you, at least half of that had been that ass Special Agent Gabriel. The only thing special about him was how completely useless he turned out to be. Anastasia Romanov was turning out to be a whole different level of helpful, for which I was profoundly grateful.

The sales lists were coming in, but only very slowly. Once I got them, I was entering them into a database which cross-referenced them against the list of military-trained snipers in California from the Defence Department.

Sanchez was compiling that list but so far there were very few hits turning up. We'd had two hits, both National Guard members but both of them had been able to account for their whereabouts on Tuesday morning.

I leaned back, easing a crick in my back and desperately waiting for Sanchez, who was off on the morning coffee run, I needed that caffeine to function. Looking up at movement I saw Anastasia walking my way, neatly turned out in a dark jacket and pants suit over a burgundy top.

"Hey Jane" I smiled back.

"Hey Anastasia, how's it going?"

"I came up to ask you. Any luck on cross matches?" I sighed and sat back in the seat.

"Nothing's panned out yet, but the list's pretty incomplete. We've got half the squad out at Marine bases interviewing snipers, Army's turn tomorrow and then the Navy guys on Friday. Turns out the Coast Guard and Air Force don't have anyone rated sniper whose AMR qualified based in California" She nodded slowly.

"Well that's a small blessing; it's still a significant number of serving personnel to get through"

"Yeah, Chief Johnson leaned on the Defence Department to assign some help in conducting the interviews, so there's an MP or military investigator assigned to each of our guys; it's making it go faster"

"A few years ago that would have been me helping out" I raised an eyebrow at her then remembered something she mentioned back at the vic's apartment.

"That's right; you were in the Army over in Afghanistan and Iraq"

"Yep, did two tours, which is where I saw the effect of AMRs" She settled in a vacant seat and looked at me. "Most of the snipers I met were quiet and detached, tending to sit back from the action and doing their job dispassionately, more like chess players than footballers"

"What do you mean?"

"Well the average AMR shooter was part of a two person team, shooter and spotter, often up to a mile from the action, shooting methodically with the spotter finding targets and calling corrections to the shots. They weren't caught up in the action and the first sign the target had that they were being engaged was when the bullet arrived. Even then the target would more than likely have no idea where the shot came from"

I thought about that, having been under fire a few times, I could sympathise with the targets, at least you normally knew where the shooter was and could take cover. Having no idea where it was coming from and not able to find cover would scare the hell out of me.

"So they don't get caught up in the action in the same way normal soldiers do" She nodded.

"Yeah, they were normally very disciplined, used to being in control of their emotions. You can't shoot straight over really long distances if you let your emotions rule, the slightest tremble can throw your shot off" I sat back and thought about it. So the person we were after was either shooting completely dispassionately, which was bad enough, or was good enough that it didn't matter.

"I hope they're not being completely emotionless about it, because they're less likely to make mistakes that way. People who are angry make mistakes, take chances. If the shooter was that dispassionate about shooting a woman in cold blood over a mile away, man that's someone I don't want to meet" She looked pensive.

"I thought those sort of emotionless killers only existed in movies" I shook my head.

"Oh they exist all right, a couple of the mob enforcers in Boston's old time mob wars had reps as stone killers, have a nice meal, go out and torture someone to death and then head off to the bar for a drink afterwards" She shivered.

"Definitely someone I don't ever want to meet. I prefer ordinary criminals; most of them aren't real smart, which makes our job easier"

"There are smart ones out there; they're the ones with the string of vic's left behind them and still out there, especially the serial killers"

"True, but all of them do things to a pattern, only they might understand it, but it makes sense to them. We simply have to unravel the pattern, get inside the mind of the perp and learn why they are doing it, once you understand why and find the pattern, you'll find them" She paused for a moment, staring off into the distance.

"The Bureau has a special unit whose job is to try and understand criminal minds, the Behavioural Analysis Unit, some nice people there but their job's way too creepy for me. I'll stick to run of the mill crims, like kidnappers, and drug pushers and counterfeiters"

"And snipers"

"Well, yeah, snipers, but it's not really my case, I just work to help you guys close it" I spotted Sanchez walking in with coffee's in hand.

"Ah thank god Sanchez! What the hell took you so long?" I reached out a hand for my coffee.

"Hey, if you want it faster Rizzoli, you could always go and get it yourself"

"Nah, I did that yesterday and I'm not on the roster till next week" He passed the cup to me and I took a quick swig. Meanwhile he was eyeing Anastasia.

"Hello Agent Romanov". She smiled at him, while I smiled at the title, every time I hear it I think of the Black Widow character from the movies, Shield Agent Natasha Romanoff.

"It's Ana remember Julio, how are you this morning?" He smiled, obviously enjoying Ana's company.

"Fine thanks Ana, if I'd known you were coming I would have got you a coffee. I'm sure you'd be more appreciative than Rizzoli here" She laughed.

"I'm sure that Jane's being appreciative, in her own way" He grinned at her, obviously he found her attractive, which she was. I'd spent enough time hiding myself under the same slacks and jacket sets to know quite well what you could conceal and she was hiding quite a bit.

"Her idea of appreciative doesn't extend to thank you apparently" I rolled my eyes at him.

"Thank you Sanchez" I said in a sing-song voice, which made him smirk.

"See, that wasn't that hard, now was it" I shook my head and turned back to Ana, who was looking over at the Murder Board, reading what little we had there.

"I take it nothing turned up on Ms Chiarino's personal life?"

I shook my head as Sanchez jumped in.

"No family here, quite a few friends who have no idea why anyone would want her dead. A boyfriend whose still in shock, but he has an alibi. Her agent says that she was working on the pilot for a Spanish language series, but it hadn't been approved yet by the network. So nothing yet" She sighed.

"But someone wanted her dead badly enough to shoot her from a mile away" I thought it out and nodded slowly as the thoughts came to me.

"It's not a crime of passion, that'd be personal and whoever did it would have done it up close, a handgun or knife or something, so they knew our vic well enough to call her, but not well enough to make it personal" Ana looked back at me.

"They called her?" Sanchez nodded.

"Telephone records show she received a phone call at 1.10 that rang out. Then another at 1.15 that also rang out. They must have woken her up because she answered a third call at 1.20, figure she was on the phone when she was shot, so the shooter knew her well enough to have her number" I thought about it for a second, considering the situation.

"Smart play, you get a couple of phone calls in short succession at that time of the night which wake you up, you immediately think something's wrong. So when the phone rings again you immediately grab it. Which means you're standing in one place" Ana nodded.

"Tell them that you're calling from a hospital or something and to hold the line, which gives them enough time to take the shot while the target's not moving"

"The call came from a pre-paid cell, bought a week ago. Naturally the ID was a fake" Sanchez added. Ana pulled a face.

"Easy to do, you can pick those up anywhere"

"The store clerk doesn't even remember the buyer, they paid cash and they made sure to buy it at a store that didn't have video surveillance" I shook my head at that.

"You mean there are places that still don't, in this day and age?" He nodded.

"I know, but it's amazing how many places still don't" I sat there drinking and letting my brain work it over.

"So someone knew her well enough to have her home number, which was unlisted, so it had to be someone she knew well enough to give it to?"

"Don't get too excited Rizzoli, this is LA. She's an actress, they give their cards out to everyone; studios, agents, producers, publicists, this town runs on contacts and networks"

"Damn" He took a sip of his coffee and shrugged.

"Not a lot of actresses in Boston I take it?"

"Nope, just the way we like it. We send all the crazies to California for you to deal with" Sanchez smirked at me.

"That explains why you're here now?" I groaned.

"Don't remind me" I looked up to see Anastasia trying not to laugh.

"I wouldn't laugh too fast if I were you, you're stuck here in the loony bin with the rest of us" She smiled.

"Well you got me there, and I volunteered. Should have remembered the Army's first rule, never volunteer for anything" I smiled back, thinking that rule applied to just about everything, particularly if you're a cop. Just then her cell rang.

"Agent Romanov" I couldn't help it, I had to grin again. "Hi Nat, sure, lunch is free, I'm on my way" She closed her cell.

"Sorry guys, much as I love chatting, I have a better offer. Ciao"

"Bye Ana"

"See you soon Anastasia" I looked up to find Sanchez watching her walk out with an appreciative look in his eye. Uh oh, looks like someone hasn't got the word. I waited until she was out of earshot before speaking.

"Ah Sanchez, you do know she's taken" He looked at me, raising both eyebrows. "You know the new media person" His eyes widened.

"That amazing blonde; you mean the one from the other night?" He mimicked an exaggerated set of woman's curves with his hands" She and her, their…" I smiled, a little nastily.

"Yep, you might have noticed the matching rings, or the fact that they arrived together, or that Ana hung around until the blonde was finished talking to the media before they left together or who just rang her for lunch or…" He hastily interrupted.

"I get it, I get it. I just didn't know" I snorted derisively.

"Some detective"

"Go to hell Rizzoli" I smiled. Rizzoli 1, Sanchez 0.


	9. Chapter 9

**First Senior Officers Meeting**

Sharon's viewpoint

I groaned as I dragged myself out of bed. I can do mornings, mostly, even early ones, but I hate Thursday mornings.

Thursday morning meant the weekly Senior Officer's Meeting with the key department heads up in Pope's conference room. Two hours of extended torture, listening to the department's financial pressures, changes to personnel policies, cost cutting measures and watching a number of department heads kissing ass trying to look good in front of Pope.

I snorted gently as I peered into the mirror, only partly at what I saw. I didn't have all that much time for Pope, but he could at least see through the BS better than some of his predecessors. I groaned. Another two hours of having to look at Russell Taylor, no doubt wearing some hideous colour combination. I swear that last shirt-and-tie combo had been a sartorial atrocity.

Then I snickered, remembering how Brenda had leaned in and whispered about the use of those colours in that combination being outlawed by the Geneva Convention.

I'd just smiled gently and quietly muttered that we could arrest him and send him to the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague for crimes against fashion and good taste. Plus we would be well rid of him.

As I stood under the shower I thought of Taylor on trial in front of a bench of judges made up of famous fashion designers pronouncing sentence with Taylor standing there in some hideous paisley / plaid combination and a 'deer-in-the-headlights' look on his face.

The image had me laughing out loud, safe here where no one could see the scary FID boss actually being happy. I honestly believe that 90% of the LAPD thinks I've had my sense of humour surgically removed.

Given the reasons FID takes an interest in an officer's job, I can understand that it's not generally a laughing matter, but almost no one actually cares enough to look behind the division to see the people who do the investigations. The people under me were good at their job, dedicated. They cared about seeing the right thing was done, even if it got them nothing but distrust from their colleagues in the rest of the force.

Some divisions saw it a little differently, but they were few and far between. The big one was Major Crimes. Ever since I had been assigned to work with them on the Goldman case, they had started to warm to me, slowly. The bean bag shot between the eyes that took out that Mexican hit man had helped a lot, even if I did admit to myself that it had been a very lucky shot. Best of all, Brenda had made it clear to her squad that I was part of her team and should be treated as such.

It was nice to be accepted, even if I was never going to live down the 'wicked witch' tag. Last Halloween I had walked in to the desk I had been assigned in the Murder Room, to find a witches pointy hat and a straw broom laying across it.

I smiled at the memory. I'd looked around, to see the entire squad nonchalantly trying to not be caught watching as I sauntered up to the desk. I'd decided to play it cool and take it as a joke.

"Thanks everyone, my broom wouldn't start this morning, so I had to drive in instead. This is very thoughtful"

I'd heard a round of chuckles around the room and looked up to see even Provenza smiling. Turning, I had caught Brenda Leigh watching from her office door where she smiled widely at me and tipped her head in a salute.

Later that morning I'd looked up to see Andy Flynn delivering the morning coffee round, pausing at my desk to put a cup down, which was a first.

When I'd thanked him, he smiled that annoying grin of his and told me it was my turn tomorrow and the coffee list was on the wall by the door. I tasted mine and realised it was an espresso with no sugar, just the way I took it. I asked him how he knew but he just laughed and told me he would be a pretty poor detective if he couldn't figure that one out.

Next time I checked the coffee list on the wall, I saw my name and 'Espresso, no sugar' added to it. It still made me smile.

A few days later Brenda had asked me to catch up for a coffee after work, and we had been meeting up ever since.

As I got dressed in what Brenda has described as one of my 'Sharon Raydor patented power pantsuit' outfits, I thought again of the friendship I had with Brenda. It was nice; I had a friend who cared enough to reach out to me, who wasn't scared of Sharon Raydor, the wicked witch of FID.

Over time our relationship had improved to the point that we had gone from rivals to acquaintances to allies to friends. Brenda was one of my closest friends in the Department.

I snorted to myself, friends in the Department? Well that was a damned short list. I could probably count them on the fingers of one hand, with some left over.

At least Brenda accepted me for who I was, to the point that she sometimes teased me about my lack of a love life. I usually retorted that she was a good one to talk and we would settle into a comfortable silence.

I think she just liked having someone to talk to outside of her squad, someone who understood what it was like, even though we could talk for hours without mentioning either of our cases once. It just meant a lot to know someone saw the person, not the rank and not the position.

I smiled at the reflection in the mirror as I made a last check before I walked out to face the world, at least Brenda would sit next to me in the meeting and we could share our usual snarky asides to pass the time.

As usual I arrived a few minutes early to take my seat in the meeting and waited for the others to arrive. I was watching for Brenda as the rest of the senior officers, all of whom were male, filed in and sat down when I suddenly realised that the dynamics of the meeting had changed.

I heard a sudden lull in the conversation and looked up, to realise that Natalie Dearing had just walked into the room, immediately drawing the attention of every man there. She was wearing a teal blouse under a cream business suit and heels with her hair pinned up, drawing attention to her face. It was a classic look that she pulled off with apparent ease, while ensuring that she was noticed.

The conversation started up again, somewhat subdued, as Natalie took a seat almost across the table and looked up, smiling at me. I nodded in reply and settled back, just in time for the conversation to die off again as a beautiful honey blonde walked in, chatting to a dark haired woman I didn't recognise.

Taking in the beautifully cut red pencil skirt, classic white silk blouse and the four inch heels that I would swear were Manolo's, I knew this had to be Maura Isles. She looked soft, stylish and graceful, completely out of place amongst the sea of uniforms around the table although you wouldn't have guessed it from her poise. She took the seat a few places down from Natalie, next to the Gang Task Force's Commander Reynolds

The other woman I didn't recognise, she was slightly taller than Maura, wearing a well cut light grey jacket and matching slacks over a blue top. She had thick straight dark hair, a piercing gaze and gave off a feeling of contained energy. As she had arrived with Doctor Isles I wondered if she was the Jane Rizzoli I had heard about.

As I watched she sat down next to our new M.E. and started chatting to Captain Collins from Tactical Response, who seemed pleased to be sitting next to her. I also noticed that Natalie had been hemmed in by Commander Washington from Traffic and Captain Oats from Air Support Division, both of whom were being very friendly.

I snorted softly, Oats in particular liked to think he was a ladies man, but he was sadly mistaken if he thought his charm would work on Natalie. I had no doubt she was a past master of deflecting unwanted attention, from far more interesting people than Oats.

On the other hand, she was obviously being charming in return, apparently interested in what they had to say and taking it all, to both men's inordinate pleasure. I guessed that if she could charm the media, spellbound senior officers were child's play.

I looked up as I heard Brenda's honey smooth southern accent wishing a cheery good day to Narcotic's Deputy Chief Kelso as she breezed through the doorway, a splash of colour in a soft grey dress and a fitted red jacket and heels. Pulling out a seat next to me she smiled as she sat down.

"And good morning to you Commander Raydor, how are we this fine morning?" I turned to look at her.

"Very well thank you Chief Johnson and yourself?" I saw a slight frown pass across her face and glanced up to see Taylor enter the room, with his old cronies Henley from Valley Operations and Garcia from Juvenile, grabbing seats well down the table away from us.

"I'm fine thank you" I watched as another dozen or so Commanders and Captains filed in, taking seats around the table. I leaned in to Brenda and whispered.

"Who's the brunette next to Doctor Isles? That is Maura Isles isn't it?" Brenda looked around, spotted them both and leaned in.

"Yes, that's Maura. That's our new FBI liaison, Special Agent Anastasia Romanov sitting next to her" I nodded my thanks and sat back.

Just then Pope walked in, apologising for being late and stating he had been held up on the phone to the Mayor. He sat down and dived in to the agenda, welcoming everyone to the meeting before making special note of our new arrivals.

I kept close watch on Taylor's face as Pope introduced our newly appointed media liaison; sure enough the look on his face could only be described as a mix between loathing and disgust, although whether it was directed at her or Pope I couldn't say.

I looked across at Natalie, who was watching Pope; then at the men around the room. Most of them seemed to be sharing their attention between Pope, who was droning on about the Mayor's latest insights on the LAPDs operations; and our three newest additions, particularly Natalie.

It occurred to me that Pope may have been a lot craftier than I had first imagined. It had initially occurred to me that he might have employed Natalie as eye candy no matter how good she was at her job.

Looking around though, I found myself wondering if he had been more devious than I had first thought. It was obvious that Natalie had made a strong impression on every man in the room; she had obviously charmed both Oates and Washington and could probably do much the same to many of the others.

That meant fewer people that Taylor could count on when he started bitching about being replaced as media liaison while undercutting Taylor's claims to have been badly treated by Pope, all of which made Pope's life easier.

I turned my attention back to Pope, who was now discussing more budget saving measures, all cloaked as an 'efficiency drive', though only a bureaucrat could expect better policing by cutting budgets. I watched him, considering if he really was that cunning or if I was giving him too much credit and he really was thinking with his dick.

"A penny for those thoughts Sharon; you've got a strange look in your eye and I doubt you're looking at Pope cause you're suddenly smitten by bald men with big jowls" I suppressed a smile with great difficulty and leaned slightly towards Brenda.

"Just a thought, I might share it with you after the meeting"

She arched an eyebrow at me, before gently nodding.

"Alrighty then, but I'll hold you to that".

I spent the next two hours chewing over my thoughts and watching our new arrivals.


	10. Chapter 10

**The cartel attack**

Natalie's viewpoint

The place reeked of blood, gunfire and smoke; it stank like violent death.

I'd got the call at lunch. Ana had a meeting so I was eating at my desk, eying the remains of a salad sandwich. Now I was wishing I hadn't eaten anything.

The crime scene looked like an outtake from a bad action movie; I'd had to walk the last block after ducking under the tape to start the long trek towards the senior officers on site.

The first thing I saw was a shot up black and white with two covered bodies sprawled next to it. I stopped for a moment to sadly pay my respects, two more funerals, two more officers' names to be inscribed on the LAPD role of honour, two more destroyed families.

Nearby I could see a body sprawled against a wall, with the FID Sergeant I'd spoken to a few days ago examining him, together with another officer. There was an assault rifle lying nearby, a hole in the dead man's face and his brains sprayed across the wall behind him. It looked like one of the officer's hadn't died alone.

Sighing heavily I walked on to a warehouse with firemen still cleaning up; the blackened exterior testimony to the ferocity of the fire still raging. The dozens of bullet holes smeared across the walls spoke of violence of another kind, while the main door appeared to have been blown in by an explosion.

I saw Chief Johnson and Commander Raydor standing together, with members of their respective teams standing around them. I stopped well away from them, no one knew anything really so there was nothing really they could tell me, nothing to tell the media yet.

I looked around, trying to take in the scene, work out what had happened here. What had brought such violent death to a decaying industrial neighbourhood? Standing not too far away, looking at a shell casing, was one of Major Crime's people, their new female detective, Jane Rizzoli. With nothing better to do I walked her way. She looked up at me as I approached.

"Detective Rizzoli, I'm Natalie Dearing…"

"Yeah, the media liaison, I remember from the other night" I nodded.

"What seems to have happened here" She stood up and pointed.

"Near as we can work out, the guys working in the warehouse were attacked by a group armed with heavy automatic weapons that had surrounded the place. There's a couple of dead near the rear exit, they appear to have been gunned down trying to get out the back.

The attack only lasted a couple of minutes at most. The attackers apparently either set fire to the place or a fire started inside. As they were leaving the first uniforms arrived, drove straight into this…" She gestured around her. " and didn't have a chance"

"I'm sorry"

"Yeah, we're police not soldiers, but this is a war zone"

"This doesn't look like your usual gang shooting, does it?" She shook her head.

"Nah, had to be at least five or six shooters, split front and back, in a coordinated attack. From what it looks like the attacks started at the front with the shooters at the rear waiting for the vic's to flee out the back before cutting them down" I nodded.

"That's not your usual ganger MO; most of them think organising a drive by is the height of tactical planning" She looked closely at me for a moment, then nodded.

"Sorry, I forgot you've been attending crime scenes for a while, you're not really a civilian" I smiled sadly.

"Detective, I've been attending crime scenes for almost eight years, five as a journalist and three with the Seattle PD and I've never seen anything like this' She looked around, before shaking her head.

"Me neither, I heard stories of some of the mob crime wars for control of the docks back in Boston, long before I was around, but they were one, maybe two shooters. Nothing like this"

I looked around, noting the hundreds of cartridges scattered everywhere, far too many to individually catalogue.

"Figure at least three or four guys, each armed with an assault rifle, plus whatever the hell they used to blow in the front door" She was talking again, walking it through in her mind.

"Two or three at the back, figure at least two or three more to drive the vehicles to carry that many, plus a spotter or two looking for the first response. That's a lot of manpower for a single gang" Our eyes connected as I replied.

"A lot of people, with a lot of military grade firepower"

"And willing to gun down cops on the way out" She grimaced. "Fuck! I hope I'm wrong here"

I nodded, thinking the same. Generally this sort of attack had stayed south of the border, but it sure sounded like the sort of attack the Mexican cartels pulled off.

"Do we know what was happening inside the warehouse" She shook her head.

"Not until we get inside, but I'm betting it's nothing good"

I looked up as I heard the sound of heels approach, to see our pretty new M.E. walking towards us. The detective turned as I spoke.

"Hello Doctor Isles"

"Hello Ms Dearing. Please call me Maura" I nodded.

"Only if you call me Natalie, or Nat" She smiled and nodded, turning to her friend? Partner?

"Hello Jane" She looked at Maura and smiled back, their eyes met and a lot passed between them in a second.

"Hi Maura, I'm afraid it's going to be a busy day" She nodded.

"I have called my entire team in, after hearing preliminary reports. This is going to be a bad one, do we have total numbers yet"

"Not until we get the all clear from the fire fighters, we don't have any idea how bad it's gonna get inside. There's definitely four dead out the back of the building" Maura frowned, obviously doing the maths, at least seven dead and who knows how many more inside the building.

"Well, I might as well start with the ones I can get to. If you will excuse me, I will start with our downed officers" I nodded while Jane Rizzoli spoke up.

"I might as well come with you; it might be a while before we get inside" I looked over and saw another burst of flames through the roof. Yes, it could be a while. I looked back to Maura.

"Not sure how bad it is inside Maura, you may not have a lot to work with, between the flames and the water damage" She simply nodded, before turning and walking back towards the black and white and it's dead crew with Jane by her side, matching her stride.

They might be friends, but with that level of intimacy they should be more. They could talk to each other with a look.

I turned and wandered up to where the two senior officers were standing, discussing the incident. I stopped a few feet behind them and shamelessly eavesdropped, interested to see how these two worked together. I'd heard that at one stage they had found it almost impossible to stand one another, but apparently had worked through it and now were, if not friends, allies.

They were certainly striking; Chief Johnson was all Southern charm, a tumbling mass of blonde hair, long legs and a slim figure that her dark green skirt suit did nothing to hide.

Commander Raydor was dark and intense, her obviously tailored dark blue pantsuit outlining a shapely body, while her long dark hair and glasses framed a face that would be beautiful if she smiled more often.

It became obvious that the Chief was itching to get into the building and get started, while Commander Raydor was quietly reminding her that walking in there right now may not be the best of ideas, as it was a bit hard to conduct an investigation while the building was still burning. Chief Johnson replied that she thought Sharon was simply unwilling to get her Armani pants suit dirty, while the Commander expressed her surprise that Brenda even knew who Armani was.

I smiled; they talked like friends.

As I watched members of their teams came and went, reports on the bodies at the rear, the results of interviews with witnesses, of which there were few, most had kept their head down when the shooting started. Prudent I supposed but not helpful.

Finally the Fire Chief walked over to Chief Johnson, pulling off his helmet and wiping the sweat off his face.

"Well, it's out, although I'll have men here for hours, watching for any flare up. It's not real safe but I know you need to get in there" She nodded.

"Thank you Chief, I appreciate it"

"Just tell your people to take it easy, it's not totally stable in there"

"I will; thank you"

Calling her team together the Chief led her team towards the warehouse while Commander Raydor turned to walk back towards the wrecked black and white, pausing when she saw me.

"Natalie" I nodded in return.

"Commander Raydor" She regarded me with a cool eye.

"It appears you will be busy"

"As will you and Chief Johnson"

"Indeed" I felt she was assessing me, seeing what I would do. Inwardly I shrugged, I was used to having to prove myself, most people thought I'd been hired for my looks; it usually took them a while to see past that.

"I'll swing by and see you in 30 minutes, by then we should have enough info to keep the media at bay for a while" She arched an impeccable eyebrow at me, before nodding once.

"As you wish"

I smiled as she walked past.

Commander Raydor had a reputation as a ball buster, or at least that's what most of her male colleagues thought. I'd spent a few nights anonymously trolling police social and chat sites to pick up the chatter in the LAPD before I had started and the terms 'bitch' and 'cunt' seemed to get a heavy workout when directed at her. That usually meant someone who was either attractive but unattainable, or extremely efficient; I assessed her as probably both.

Chief Johnson seemed to bring out a completely different side to her though, based on what I had observed, so the 'ice queen', another popular online term, had a human side.

I wandered towards the warehouse, but stayed back from the entrance. My place wasn't in there, they had more than enough to do and I would find out what happened soon enough.

For the next 30 minutes I observed as Major Crimes moved through the warehouse, carefully cataloguing the scene. Maura had moved in to examine the bodies and several teams from the M.E.s office hung around waiting to get the OK to start removing them.

I rang Ana, who was at the Bureau's local office talking to the Mexican cartel specialists, looking to see if there was any intel that might assist the case. So far almost nothing, if it had been planned in advance, no one had even whispered so much as a word, or at least nowhere near a Bureau informant.

I followed some of Maura's people round to the back of the building, to see them collect the four dead men near the rear exit. Obviously they had never had a chance, all of them had been hit with multiple shots and had probably died almost instantly. I noticed at least two handguns near the bodies, suggesting that the dead weren't exactly innocent factory workers.

Wandering back round the front, I watched as Chief Johnson walked out in conversation with Maura; I picked up the tail of the conversation as they approached.

"However, I realise that there's little really to work with Doctor; but I appreciate that you'll do your best. Please call me if anything unusual crops up" Maura nodded and stated directing her team to remove what turned out to be five bodies, all badly burned and waterlogged, from the building.

The Chief spent the next couple of minutes directing her team to concentrate on various tasks, before turning to me

"Ms Dearing, nice to see y'all today"

"And you Chief Johnson. What can you tell me about the incident, so I can try and put together something to give the media without giving away too much?"

"Well, it appears that the people inside were running a drug distribution warehouse. We found several drums that had survived the heat intact, with cocaine packaged inside, waiting to be broken down for sending on to smaller dealers" I nodded.

"I understand that the attack was well coordinated and involved at least two teams of shooters plus support" She looked at me for a moment.

"You're quite well informed" I shrugged.

"I listen and I can make educated guesses"

"Well, you're quite close to the mark. Probably six or seven shooters with military grade weapons, mostly assault rifles, plus some kind of rocket launcher" I shrugged.

"Looks like our week for military grade weapons, whatever happened to criminals using shotguns and Saturday night specials?" She smiled.

"I believe that's called progress Ms Dearing"

"Or evolution. A new, better armed breed of criminal is evolving" We looked at the walls of the building, pockmarked with dozens of bullet holes. She sighed.

"I'm afraid you're right. So, what are you going to tell the press?"

"Well, I'll have to speak to Commander Raydor, but I think we might go with two LAPD officers lost as they responded to reports of a shootout between rival gangs" I looked back towards the shot up Black and White, now sitting alone after the officers bodies had been removed. "I'll concentrate on the lost officers, partly to distract the media, but mostly because they deserve the recognition"

The Chief followed my gaze as we watched Commander Raydor walk back towards us, followed by several of her officers.

"I'll check with HR to confirm the families have been notified before we mention names" She nodded.

"That sounds best, let's concentrate on our dead; after all, these people aren't going anywhere" We waited for Commander Raydor to join us. She looked tired. The Chief spoke first.

"Anything turn up Sharon?" She shook her head.

"No witnesses, but the story is pretty straightforward. Officers Kelly and Liao arrived and were ambushed by a man with an assault rifle, the dead assailant. Kelly died instantly; Liao took down the assailant with his second shot, before being shot from behind by the second ambusher, who shot from cover" The Chief frowned.

"A deliberate ambush, our officers drove straight into the crossfire"

"It looks that way Chief. They really didn't have any chance of surviving the ambush" We paused for a few moments, each lost in our thoughts, before Raydor spoke again.

"So Natalie, what are you going to tell the ghouls?" She waved off behind her to where we could all see the TV trucks gathered"

"That two of our own died this morning, racing to respond to reports of a crime. That they leave friends, family, loved ones and colleagues behind who will mourn them and that the LAPD will not rest until their killers are brought to justice" They both nodded.

"Of course I will add the usual about asking for witnesses and anyone with information to come forward, but, well, I doubt we will get much help there" The Chief shook her head.

"I don't 'spose you will, but we have to ask, don't we"

"Yes, maybe someone will feel guilty about our two dead officers, but it's a faint hope" The Commander looked over at the Chief.

"I don't think the cartel used anyone local Brenda, even if they did they're probably halfway to Mexico by now"

"Very likely, but if we don't shut them down, quickly, then they'll be back, to do it again"

I looked at her.

"I didn't think they brought their wars across the border into the US" The Chief smiled without any humour.

"There's always a first time for everything, isn't there Natalie?" I slowly nodded, looking around at the evidence scattered across the landscape.

"I guess there is"


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N **Just a reiteration, these characters and their rights belong to their creators. No copyright infringement is intended, but thank you for letting us have our way with them, even if only for a little while

**The second sniper attack**

Brenda's viewpoint

Tuesday morning and I have a Tuesday morning-sized headache to match. Our investigations into the sniper attack were going nowhere quickly and then we had the warehouse shootout on top of it, which meant most of us worked throughout the weekend.

A week after the first sniper attack with nothing much to show for it and I was standing in a nicely upscale apartment, looking at a sight becoming all too rapidly familiar; another young woman with half her head blown off.

Virginia Tennant, 28, a cable TV personality apparently, had been doing early morning Tai Chi exercises on her balcony when the bullet hit, bringing her life to an early, ugly close.

We had already found another 50 calibre shell in the woodwork, I didn't doubt it would match the one we already had. We had gone from a murder to a serial killer, which made a bad day much worse.

Looking around I watched as the squad went about their business. There were a few additions to the team; Maura Isles was on the scene, as was Natalie Dearing. Her partner Anastasia was here too, having brought a large pair of binoculars with her.

When I asked Anastasia had admitted that while it wasn't officially 'her' case, she felt that as the one who had identified the issue first, that she should do what she could to help out.

Truth be told I didn't mind, watching her standing at the railing scanning possible firing points, I thought she was doing something useful, which was more than I seemed to on this case.

I felt useless; we had basically the same evidence that we had from the first one, a pretty young woman brutally stripped of life, a monstrous bullet recovered to confirm what we already knew and not much else.

I watched as the team started combing through victim's personal effects, looking for some connection, no matter how tenuous, with Marianella Chiarino, our first victim.

I sighed as I watched the normally welcome sight of our new media liaison walk through the door. Her presence reminded me that we were not going to be able to hold a lid on this for much longer, especially with a cable TV star involved. She stopped near the door, taking care not to disturb anything that might be evidence and nodded at me, letting me know she was happy to chat to me when I had time.

I was grateful for the courtesy, as it allowed me to try and get some sense of what was going on.

"Sergeant Gabriel, what have you got on our victim's career?" Out came David's notebook as he recited the information.

"Well Chief, Ms Tennant is a host of a cable TV show, "Fashion Watch", it apparently looks at new developments in women's fashion. She's hosted the program for almost 18 months according to her producer"

"Speaking of Mrs Kelly, is she in any fit state to talk yet?" The producer had apparently turned up looking for her star when she hadn't showed up for taping and found the body. She hadn't handled it well; her screams had led a neighbour to ring 911, which had eventually led me here. David just shook his head.

I looked down at the body, the bullet had hit in the lower jaw, tearing most of it away before passing through the back of the skull and out the rear. I don't suppose I should be surprised that Mrs Kelly was near catatonic with shock, if you weren't used to violent death it could be shocking, and this one was more violent than most.

Maura was attempting to decipher the pose she was in when she was hit, which might help us work out where the shot came from.

Eventually she stood and turned to look at me, an uncertain look on her normally gorgeous face.

"Chief Johnson, this hypothesis is extremely tenuous to put it mildly. It's little more than an ill-educated guess…" I had already heard from Jane that Maura was exceptionally reluctant to guess and I was pushing her hard, but anything she did would help.

"I understand Maura, really I do, but anything you could help me with would be more than I have right now" She sighed and walked over to an area closer to the balcony.

"I need a stand in..." She mused, looking around at the women in the room. "Anastasia, how tall are you in bare feet?" Ana looked around in surprise.

"Five six; why?" Maura shook her head.

"Too short" She looked at over me; obviously realising I was slightly shorter. "Natalie, what about you?" She levered herself off the wall and stood taller.

"Five ten" Maura looked at her for a moment and nodded.

"Could you please take your shoes off and come over here" She dropped a pair of three inch heels on the floor and padded over, avoiding the blood spatter on the floor.

I watched as she posed Natalie about six feet in front of the wall, her feet standing on a mat that the victim had been using. Maura kept looking between where Natalie was standing and where the body had crashed against a deckchair, checking against the blood spray across the wall behind her.

"The victim was doing tai chi when shot, so you would need to stand with your feet about 18 inches apart please" Natalie moved her feet and settled again, as Maura reached out again. "I'll need to move your head…" She gently reached out to carefully move Natalie's head into one position after another, searching for the right position.

In fact I noticed that everyone had stopped to watch as she stepped back, considering Natalie's pose, her face frowning in concentration. Again and again she made small movements to Natalie's head and pose, before stepping back.

"May I have the laser pointer please Lieutenant Tao?" I looked over to Michael, who reached into his pocket and brought out the one attached to his key ring. He stepped over and handed it to Maura, who nodded gratefully to him.

"Thank you Lieutenant" She turned and walked towards the impact crater.

"Jane, could you please move that chair over to the wall, near the bullet impact point?"

Once the chair was in place she stepped up and held the laser in front of the hole, pointing at the back of Natalie's head, the red dot standing out against her blonde hair.

"Could you please hold it in this position Jane? Thank you" Stepping down, Jane replaced her as Maura walked back to where Natalie stood.

I noticed that the rest of the squad was as entranced as I, watching her recreate the scene.

Another session of moving Natalie's head and body followed as Maura attempted to line up the laser with the location of the exit would on the victim. Finally satisfied she looked back at me.

"Chief Johnson, I've probably wasted your time as this is far from a scientific test, however based on a series of estimations, you're probably looking at the position the victim was in when struck. As you can see, the victim had her head slightly back, so the bullet came from slightly below horizontal and probably from this general direction"

I smiled; Maura Isles had just reproduced, with nothing more than her examination of the victim, a living model and a pocket laser pointer, something that would have taken the forensics labs techs half a day and a box of equipment. I now understood why she came so highly recommended from Boston, if anything they had been modest about her skills.

"That's ok Doctor, anything that sends us somewhat in the right direction and narrows down where we are looking is very helpful" Anastasia stepped up behind Natalie's shoulder and started scanning her binoculars in the general area indicated.

"Well Chief, the two most likely areas are a copse of trees in a small park, or a car park probably about 200 metres away to the left of the trees. Distance would be around 1300 metres, somewhere between four thousand and four thousand five hundred feet. Most of the rest of the area is private residences"

"Excellent. Agent Romanov, could you please point out the sites you've mentioned to Lieutenant Flynn. Lieutenant Provenza, once we've got the area identified, get some uniforms onsite scouring both areas for anything that might help us get a better handle on our shooter. Could you and Lieutenant Flynn take charge of the search please?"

I noticed Maura thanking Natalie for her help and started to turn away when I saw Natalie reach out to Anastasia, who was looking a little discomforted. I wondered what it meant when I suddenly realised she had just seen her partner standing in exactly the same spot and pose the victim had been when her life had come to an abrupt, brutal and messy end.

It didn't take too much imagination for Anastasia to see Natalie in the place of the victim, something Natalie must have recognised. As I watched, she reached out and rubbed Anastasia's arm while offering a warm smile. After a few seconds of contact, her hand dropped, but I could see it had helped.

I realised I wasn't the only one to have seen it, as Jane Rizzoli stepped up next to Anastasia and spoke something in a soft voice, to which Anastasia replied with a small nod and a whispered thanks. Maura in turn must have suddenly realised what had happened based on what Jane had done, as she turned and quietly asked if Natalie and Anastasia were alright.

As I watched, I saw both of them quickly turn to reassure Maura that she had done nothing wrong and they were fine. If anything they seemed concerned to have upset her.

It was fascinating, watching both couples as they interacted. I wasn't used to watching couples work together and the way they related to each other and to the other couple, was quite different than my previous experience. I also found the concern that each couple had for the other to be... interesting. A few seconds later they had drifted apart and it was as if nothing had happened.

I'd always found people watching to be enthralling and these four women were proving to be compelling subjects. I resolved to keep a close eye on them in the future, watching how they dealt with each other.

In the meantime, we had a long range serial killer to catch.


	12. Chapter 12

**Natalie talks to Maura**

Maura's viewpoint

I was working at my desk, completing the autopsy reports on the second sniper victim when I was interrupted by a light knock on the door.

Natalie Dearing was standing in the door, looking smart in a dark grey pinstripe skirt suit, pale yellow blouse and black heels. While I didn't totally appreciate the nature of the job she did, I had to respect the effort she put in to her appearance; no doubt it helped get part of her message across to the media.

I had noticed that most of the networks used attractive female anchors and Natalie was equally their measure in both poise and looks.

"Morning Maura, sorry to interrupt you" I smiled and stood.

"Please Natalie, come in and have a seat".

I watched her settle in the seat across the desk. I realised then that I had only one seat and resolved to get several comfortable chairs so that I could sit with visitors, rather than sitting across a desk from them like it was a consultation.

"How may I be of assistance?" She looked across at me for a second.

"I've had an unusual request that I thought I'd run past you" I frowned.

"If I can help of course I will" She smiled and raised her hand.

"Wait until you hear the request first before agreeing" I leaned back and waited for her to continue.

"We've had a request from one of the stations looking to interview you" I was surprised, normally my exposure to the media was limited to being filmed arriving at crime scenes or walking into court rooms to give evidence.

"Interview me, whatever for?" She shrugged.

"They say it's because they are interested in interviewing the City's new M.E., especially one who has transferred here from another city where you have had such a…" She paused for a moment, searching for the right word, possibly trying not to offend.

"Colourful?" I supplied. She smiled widely.

"Colourful career, yes, thank you" I thought about it for a moment.

"You're the one with experience of the media; it's not really my area of expertise. What do you think?"

"I'm reluctant to put you up for it" I cocked my head to one side, considering her statement. Before I could speak she continued.

"I've no doubt that you would handle yourself well, you're used to being cross examined in trials, if you were to approach the interview much as you would a hostile defence attorney you wouldn't go too far wrong"

"But…"

"In this case the program is much more the shock horror scandal variety than a serious news outlet, plus the host is somewhat renowned for his hostile interview technique" I nodded slowly.

"You think they may have a hidden agenda?"

"Yes, I suspect that not only will they try and get more information on the cartel shooting last week, they may also have some knowledge of the sniper attacks, which we really don't want getting out" I was a little disappointed in Natalie, I certainly wouldn't reveal anything I wasn't supposed to, and felt saddened that she didn't realise that.

"I see…" Before I could continue she interrupted.

"However that's not the reason I would be reluctant to support their request, I'm sure you could deflect their questions at least as well as anyone and better than most. I actually think they are more interested in trying to get more information on Detective Rizzoli's background and your association with her" I sat back, processing what she had said.

"And you think that I might say something I shouldn't?"

"Not at all, I think you'd be fine, however they'd likely use images from several of the incidents you've both been involved in, in particular the shooting outside Boston Police Headquarters and the various incidents involving Charles Hoyt as part of the segment, possibly springing them on you during the interview. I'd rather spare you both having to go through that, it's just not worth it"

"Oh, I see"

"If I thought they wouldn't go there, then I would support you if you decided to agree to their request, however I don't think that the chance of some good coverage is worth the risk of putting both of you through experiences I am sure that neither of you care to revisit unnecessarily" I paused for a moment, considering not only what she was saying but also the kindness she was showing us both.

"There is another reason as well, a purely selfish one"

"Oh?"

"Yes, if they did try and embarrass you or upset you, I'm not sure Jane Rizzoli would take it lying down and shooting the interviewer, no matter how much he might deserve it, would be bad for the Department's image" I laughed, especially given Jane's protective nature.

"I could see how that might cause you some problems. Therefore, based on your advice, I am happy to decline; perhaps we can claim press of work?" She nodded.

"Yes, it's not like you don't have enough work" I sighed.

"It's busy, even with several assistant M.E.s here, much busier than I am used to"

"I totally understand where you're coming from. My last role was media liaison to the Seattle Police Department. They're barely a tenth the size of the LAPD and the case loads similarly small, so I'm still coming to terms with it. The warehouse attack involved more shooting deaths than I've seen in the last year in Seattle" I nodded, remembering a similar discussion with Jane in the aftermath of the shootings.

"Yes, Boston is also a lot quieter in that respect. Most of the firearms homicides are murder or robbery related, nothing like what we witnessed"

"Well, I would be happy to not witness too many more like that, even looking from a distance it was quite unpleasant, I don't know how you cope, having to immerse yourself in the middle of the scene" I shrugged.

"It's my job; it's what I have trained for and what I am good at, or so I'm told"

"Well I'm happy to leave you to it, I was studying medicine but found I didn't have it in me to cut open people, so I switched to another profession" I nodded, curious as to her job.

"Do you enjoy what you do?" Natalie smiled at me.

"Actually I do, I've always been a people person and this job means I spend my day talking to all sorts of people, learning all sorts of things. Plus I get to talk for the Department, getting the stories out that might otherwise go untold" I raised an eyebrow, that sounded very familiar.

"It's somewhat similar to me; I speak for the dead, telling the stories they cannot" She nodded and smiled.

"That's a good way to describe it, so in a way we're similar, we both speak for others" I thought about it, there were indeed similarities.

"One good thing about my job though. I've ended up with a head full of useless information, so I'm a whiz at trivia competitions" I smiled, having been part of several trivia competitions back in Boston.

"I'm also considered rather proficient at trivia, so if you are ever putting together a team please keep me in mind. Jane as well, she's quite good at sports" Natalie smiled.

"Well Ana, my partner, is great at geography and history, plus I can handle pop culture, so we have the basis for a good team. I'll keep my ear to the ground, see if there are any trivia competitions running"

"Back in Boston our local, the Dirty Robber, had a monthly Tuesday night trivia completion. They would offer a $100 meal and drinks voucher to the winning team, which we were successful in winning from time to time"

"I can handle the occasional free night out, courtesy of a trivia win, so I'll keep an eye open for any local competitions. It'll be good to get out and be social, Ana and I don't really know anyone here yet"

"It's much the same with us, so please keep us in mind" She bit her lip slightly, perhaps signifying a little nervousness.

"There is one last question if you don't mind"

"Of course" She paused, looking a little pensive.

"This might be a little out of line, and if you tell me to mind my own business I'll completely understand" I looked at her for a moment, suspecting what she was going to ask.

"Please go ahead"

"I was wondering if you and Jane are just good friends or something a little more"

I sat back thought about her question and its implications. Our relationship wasn't a secret, at least not back in Boston and we weren't trying to hide it here, just not being completely open unless asked. I could see Natalie starting to look uncomfortable, obviously afraid that she had said the wrong thing.

"Maura, I'm sorry if I've presumed…"

"No that's alright Natalie. Yes, Jane and I are partners" She broke out in a smile.

"Ah wonderful, I'm very happy for you both. I just wanted to be sure"

"You're actually the first person to ask" She nodded.

"I thought you might be; you have such a close rapport. You are aware that Anastasia and I are together?"

"I gathered as much" In fact their connection was quite apparent if you spent any time around them both. They had an easy intimacy and an openness that I hoped Jane and I would develop over time.

"It's nice to meet another couple like us; I hope we get the chance to catch up outside work. If you need anything, just ask" Natalie smiled and stood, bringing the chat to a close. "Anyway, I have to run, but thanks for the chat" I smiled at her.

"It was nice"

"It was indeed, have a great day Maura, we'll chat again soon:"

"I'd like that Natalie, see you soon"

After she left I thought back over our discussion.

I found myself liking Natalie, she was cheerful and thoughtful and I appreciated her kindness in wishing to spare Jane and myself any difficulties with the media.

Back in Boston we had Jane's family and our work colleagues, Detectives Korsak and Frost to socialise with, whereas here we had no one.

Jane tended to lose herself in her work, so it would be partially up to me to build any friendships over the next few months, particularly if we found ourselves staying longer than the initial six months. Natalie seemed like a nice person to get to know, only newly arrived as we were and with her partner Anastasia they were in a similar situation to ourselves.

I smiled to myself, hoping that we could find ways to stay in touch.


	13. Chapter 13

**Anastasia and Maura discuss their weekends**

Maura's viewpoint

I was standing in line for a mid-morning coffee when I heard a cheery 'Good morning Doctor' from behind me. Turning I saw Natalie's partner Anastasia strolling up to take the next place in the line.

"Good morning Anastasia, please, it's Maura" She smiled.

"Then its Maura if you call me Ana" I smiled in return.

"Ana it is then. How has your week been?"

"Busy, chasing down information for Major Crimes on their cases, plus the usual other work. I'm sure you've been pretty busy with the warehouse case though"

"Regrettably yes, I have not had to deal with so many victims from a single crime scene before. Fortunately the Medical Examiner's team here is quite competent, which makes my job a little easier" Anastasia nodded.

"Yeah, Natalie filled me in on the situation there, pretty nasty. I've never dealt with such a large crime scene either"

"You and Natalie have only recently relocated here, have you not?" She nodded as the line moved forward a place.

"Yeah, we moved here from Seattle, Nat was media liaison with the Seattle PD and I had the Bureau Liaison role there" I nodded, realising they were indeed in a similar situation to Jane and I.

"We only recently arrived from Boston, on a six month secondment, so we are still getting to know the city"

"We're doing the tourist thing at the moment. We went to Disneyland last weekend, have you been?" I smiled.

"That was one of the first things we did once we got here, we went the weekend before you, Jane insisted, but it was wonderful fun"

"We had fun, I always wanted to go when I was a kid, but most of my time as a kid was spent in either Europe or the East Coast" Europe?

"Oh, which parts of Europe?"

"Germany; the UK and Italy, my dad was in the Army so we moved when he did"

"Ah, I spent some time in Europe as well, France mostly, although I did visit some other places, mostly on school excursions" At her enquiring look I clarified. "I went to a French boarding school"

"Ah, I see. No Euro-Disney back then" I shook my head, imagining the tutors response to a request to go to a theme park.

"I doubt we would have been allowed to go, even if it was available at the time"

"Well, at least we both got to Disneyland eventually. We're looking at doing some of the other tourist things as well" I stepped forward as the line moved along.

"We only have six months in Los Angeles before we return to Boston, so we are looking forward to as much of the tourist experience as we can while we are here"

"Well neither of us are California natives, so it's all new to us and we want to get out and see things, take advantage of the weather here, it's a lot nicer weather than Seattle"

"Yes, while Boston's climate is not too extreme the winters have a chill to them. I was pleased to leave our winter clothes in storage when we moved out here"

"So what's next on your itinerary?"

"We had discussed perhaps a studio tour, although we've not yet made up our minds"

"Well, they're on our list too, Nat was mentioning it last night" I smiled as I realised I may have an opportunity to spend some time with them away from work.

"Perhaps we might do the tour together, if you think it would be appropriate. Perhaps share the experience" Anastasia smiled widely.

"That would be great, Natalie mentioned she had spoken to you and suggested we might catch up. I'll have a chat but I'm pretty sure what her answer will be. Let us know when and where" I smiled; this was proving easier than I had thought. Anastasia was as easy to chat to as Natalie.

"That would be lovely, I can chat to Jane but I'm sure she will love it as well"

Seeing the person in front complete their order, I stepped forward and placed my order before turning back.

"What were you having Ana?"

"A cappuccino please Maura" Waving away her attempts to pay me, I placed our orders and we stepped to one side to wait.

"Thank you Maura"

"My pleasure" On an impulse I turned to her. "How about you chat to Natalie and I have a chat to Jane and we catch up for lunch, perhaps we can agree on something for this weekend" As I spoke I realised that it must sound terribly forward of me. I watched Anastasia frown, had I been too pushy?

"Hmm, I have some stuff I was supposed to do over lunch, but it was paperwork, which I have no problem tossing, Is Jane available for lunch?"

"Yes, I believe she should be, I can find out"

"How about you bring Jane and I bring Nat and we do lunch while we work out where we might want to go" I smiled in relief.

"That would be lovely; do you have a place in mind?"

"No, but I'm sure we can find something. I'll ask a few people if there is anything decent close by for lunch"

"May I ask a question?" Anastasia smiled at me.

"Of course"

"How long have you and Natalie been together?" She nodded.

"We've been together almost four years; we met in Seattle through our jobs. Have you and Jane been together long?"

"Not as long as a couple, almost a year, but we were close friends for over two years before that"

"We knew each other for about four months before we got serious, best thing that ever happened to me"

"Well, Jane is the best thing that has happened in my life, I'm very fortunate"

"Me too, looks like we're both lucky" I nodded, as our coffees were placed on the counter and our number was called.

"How about I call you after I check with Nat, if Jane's also free we can meet in the foyer at, what? 12.30?"

"That would be fine, I do hope their free. If they're not, we can still do lunch and try and work out what we can go and see in the coming weeks"

Picking up our coffee's we made our way back to the elevators to head our separate ways.

"Speak to you soon Ana"

"Shouldn't be long, I might just head up to Nat's office and ask now" I smiled at the idea, then thought, why not?

"Excellent idea, I might see if Jane is at her desk now"

Stepping into the lift, we rode up to Major Crime's floor. Taking my leave, I walked towards the murder room, thinking that things seemed to be looking up already in our move to California.

I had a good feeling about both Anastasia and Natalie and hoped that we might get to know them better. We had the beginnings of a friendship and hopefully it would grow stronger.

I reflected that only yesterday I had hoped to find ways to keep in touch and now we were looking at spending time together on the weekends.

I smiled, with a little luck we might be on the way to making our first friends here in LA.


	14. Chapter 14

**The girls do lunch**

Anastasia's viewpoint

Natalie was working through some paperwork when I dropped in to see her. She always looks nice, but I did like the look of her in a suit, today it was a tightly tailored pinstripe and heels.

Mind you the suit I like her best in is her birthday suit, but that might be a little inappropriate for work, it does make for some very nice mental images though, 'specially while doing boring paperwork.

I told her that Maura and I had been chatting and decided we'd all do lunch while discussing places we might want to go sightseeing. She happily agreed, marking the time as out of office on her schedule.

Come 12.30 I stepped out of the lifts to see Maura and Nat standing together. They both looked lovely, striking features, graceful poise, shining blonde hair and personalities that drew people to them. If Maura was anything like Nat I could easily see why Jane had fallen for her. Walking up I smiled at them both, before leaning in for a quick kiss from Nat. Maura smiled at us before nodding towards the lift.

"Good timing, here comes Jane now" I turned to greet Jane as she strode up to us, smiling at Maura.

"Sorry I was late; I had to wrap something up. Let's get lunch, I'm starving" Falling into step besides Maura, Jane directed us towards a group of shops on the next block.

"The guys in the squad said that the food down here's not too bad, so we can check them out"

Several minutes brisk walk found us looking into several café's, before heading into one that looked bright and cheery. Sitting down to order we started to look over the menus when Jane smiled widely, dropping hers on the table.

"Hot damn, burgers" I watched as a look passed between Maura and Jane, as one of Maura's eyebrows rose, bringing a small smile to my face. A thought crossed my mind and I leaned in to see what Nat was concentrating on. As I guessed she'd skipped right past anything healthy and had gone straight to cholesterol, fries in fact.

"Nat…" She looked up at me, a trifle guiltily.

"What? I hadn't ordered anything yet" I smiled gently at her.

"And what exactly are you looking at ordering?" She looked down at the menu, flipping it over to look at the salads section.

"I don't know, something nice" We exchanged a look, before I turned back to Maura and Jane, to find them both watching us, making me smile slightly.

"Anyway, what are you eating?" I turned back to Natalie and indicated a Caesar salad on the menu, which she peered at. "Ok, at least you're eating"

Turning to our lunch partners Natalie explained.

"When Ana gets busy she tends to skip meals, which isn't a good thing, so I'm just happy to make sure she eats well"

Maura nodded in agreement, before glancing at Jane out of the corner of her eye.

"When Jane's busy with a case she either skips meals or eats particularly unhealthy meals" I could see Jane sit up as if she'd been poked.

"Hey, what's wrong with bread, beef, salad and vegetables?" Maura just smiled.

"Nothing darling, except in the case of a burger, in which case it's full of oil, grease, trans-fats, cholesterol, salt and who knows what else and that's without the fries you insist on having with it. You really should consider the grilled fish and salad, it's much healthier"

Looking down to hide a smile, I looked across at Natalie.

"So have you worked out what you're having Nat?"

"I don't know; something…" I gently tapped the Thai chicken salad further down the list.

"That would be a bit better for you, at least until you find a regular gym"

I looked up to see Jane and Maura both trying to hide smiles. Nat also saw them and sighed.

"Ana here hassles me about what I eat, she thinks I don't eat as well as I should" She shrugged. "She's probably right, especially as I haven't found a gym yet to work off any extra pounds" Jane frowned.

"What about the LAPD gym, I got told it's free for all employees?"

"I'm not really comfortable with that idea, I don't like working out surrounded by people I work with. I have enough issues dealing with how they see me without them staring at me all hot and sweaty in Lycra" Both nodded in agreement at that.

The waitress wandered over and we ordered, Maura and I both had the Caesar while Natalie went with a grilled eggplant salad, Jane ordered the fish, after some good natured grumbling. A carafe of chilled water was placed on the table, together with four glasses and I filled drinks for everyone as Nat chatted to the others.

"So you've only just got here too?" Maura nodded.

"We're here for six months on secondment from Boston PD, I had the chance for a professional development secondment and Jane was able to come too" I nodded.

"What's it like in Major Crimes, compared to back in Boston?"

"Busy, we had a smaller team and nothing like Major Crimes, I was in homicide, here it's a lot broader range of crimes investigated, although many include a homicide component" Nat nodded.

"They certainly get their share of high profile crimes but Major Crimes has quite a reputation for closure rate"

"Yeah, I hope to learn a lot while I'm here" Natalie cocked her head at Jane.

"Are you enjoying Major Crimes?"

"Yeah well, mostly. It sucks being the low man on the totem pole. It's a senior team, lots of experienced people, which means everyone's either a sergeant or a lieutenant. Only Sanchez and I are detectives. I hate being the junior newbie"

"Everyone has to start somewhere" Jane frowned.

"I did that back in Boston" Maura leaned in, changing the subject.

"I understand you have only just arrived here yourselves?" I glanced at Nat and she answered.

"Yes, we were both working in Seattle, same jobs as here. Ana was asked to take up the job here, and I started looking for a job. Fortunately the LAPD media role was being advertised and I applied. I'd also applied to several state and federal agencies, plus two of the local news channels, but I was happy to be able to work with Ana again" I felt her hand on my thigh under the table and placed mine on hers, as she twined her fingers with mine. Maura nodded.

"It's nice to work with your partner" Jane and Maura exchanged a look and smiled back at us, as I noticed they each had a hand under the table, I bet they were holding hands as well. Natalie smiled at me.

"Yes it is. I'm so glad we ended up here. It's a promotion for Ana and a big step up for me as well. I mean we're doing the same jobs, but the LAPD is a lot bigger than the Seattle PD, so the pays a lot better for me and it's a lot more prestigious role for Ana, even if the pay rise isn't as big as mine" I jumped in.

"It had better pay better, the cost of living here in LA is a lot more expensive than Seattle" Maura nodded.

"We're renting and it's a nice place up in Westwood, but the monthly rent is a lot more than I initially expected here" Natalie looked up from the coffee section of the menu to agree.

"We have a two bedroom apartment over near the Miracle Mile, it's pricey but it's reasonably close to work, which is a good thing, because I'm starting to realise I'm likely to get a lot more call outs than I first imagined" Jane shook her head.

"Yeah, that's gonna suck after a while" Natalie and I shared a look.

"We know, but we both agreed that it's worth it, it's a good career move and it's a good learning experience. Isn't that why you guys came?" Jane nodded, looking at Maura.

"Initially it was a secondment for Maura, but when I found out I was going to Major Crimes, well as you said, they have a really good rep" Maura leaned forward.

"It also gave us a chance to spend some time together in a new location" I noticed Jane's eyes widen slightly as Maura spoke. "We haven't been together all that long and there was certain expectations that people had back in Boston" I was going to let it slide but Nat leaned forward and asked the question.

"What sort of expectations? People at work, or family and friends" Maura looked thoughtful.

"A bit of both really. Not everyone was as supportive as they might have been, so this secondment was a wonderful chance to spend time together away from the scrutiny and pressures" Nat nodded.

"Completely understand guys. We've had a few issues as well, mostly at work. Nothing we couldn't handle, but it's still something we shouldn't be having to deal with, it's the 21st century for god's sake. Hopefully LA will be a little less judgemental"

I decided to change the subject, as I was picking up a weird vibe from Jane, as if she wasn't comfortable talking about personal issues with people she didn't really know well. I'm a little like that as well, even if Natalie isn't, so I understood her discomfort.

"I understand you guys went to Disneyland? How was it?" Jane smiled, either at the memory or at the change in subject.

"Fantastic, I'd always wanted to go, since I was a kid, we had a really good time" Maura smiled.

"It's really quite fascinating; the animatronics they use are quite amazing, in particular the Pirate's area and the Haunted Mansion were quite intricate. Disney has some of the world's best animatronics experts working on their attractions" Jane smiled, wrapping her arm around Maura and giving her a quick hug.

"You'll have to forgive Maura, everyone else goes there to get scared by the ghosts, Maura has to analyse how they work" Natalie laughed happily, glancing at me out of the corner of her eye, I knew exactly what she was going to say.

"Don't feel bad Maura, Ana here was too busy trying to work out how it worked to enjoy it, we ended up doing it twice, to satisfy her curiosity" Jane just lifted an eyebrow at me.

"Really? I mean really Ana? Maura I can understand, Dr Google here sees the world as a science puzzle, but you went to Disneyland to work out how it works?" I shrugged, feeling my cheeks warm up.

"I like to know, no biggie. You're a detective; you must want to figure things out too"

"Nope, not Disneyland, some things are there to be enjoyed, not explained"

We were interrupted by the arrival of our lunches, which turned out to be quite good.

Natalie paused over her eggplant, looking across the table.

"So you guys are looking at some more tourist stuff, what's your preference?" Maura finished a mouthful of salad and looked up.

"A studio tour would be on the list, as well as the Hollywood walk of Fame, plus I would like to see Grauman's Chinese Theatre" I interrupted Maura with an apologetic look.

"Grauman's? I thought it was Mann's Chinese Theatre?" She smiled.

"It was originally and then it became Mann's after they bought the theatre after Mr Grauman died. I think it went back to the original name a few years ago" Natalie just looked at her with an appraising look on her face. Noticing her scrutiny Maura looked at her with a question on her face. Natalie narrowed her eyes at Maura.

"I SO want you for any trivia team I'm in" Jane laughed.

"Maura was our secret weapon at our local pub's monthly trivia nights back in Boston. She's amazing" I smiled.

"Yeah, we used to be part of a trivia comp back in Seattle, we did pretty well" Natalie laughed.

"We did better than well, but we have to get a team going here, I want to see Maura in action" The subject of our discussion blushed at the attention.

"While I'm good on some things, I'm not really that good at sport, or pop culture or lots of other things" Jane grinned.

"Don't let her modesty fool you, back in Boston the rest of us were there to make up numbers and drink the winnings, Maura did all the work"

"Jane, that's not true and you know it. You'll have to forgive Jane, she tends to be a bit melodramatic" Jane rolled her eyes, spreading her arms wide, playing the ham.

"Me! Melodramatic? I'm shocked, shocked I tell you, to even contemplate you thinking of me like that Maura"

Maura just rolled her eyes and slapped Jane's arm gently.

"As I was saying, there are plenty of other attractions, not all of them are the usual. I would quite like to visit Griffith Park, it's over 4,000 acres of nature reserve and attractions and I really would like to see the Griffith Planetarium and the Los Angeles Zoo" I nodded.

"We're up for some outdoor stuff; we used to hike up in Seattle. We also wanted to see Madame Tussaud's, we saw the one in London, but this one specialises in actors and celebrities" Jane nodded at the idea.

"I could handle the waxworks, it'd be cool" Natalie grinned.

"That sounds like a plan; we could do that in the morning and something else in the afternoon, if you're ok with that, or maybe some shopping" Maura's answering smile was bright and lovely.

"I love shopping, do you have anything in particular you need to shop for, clothes, shoes, anything special" I looked up to find see Jane looking at me raising her eyebrows. We exchanged a look I could only describe as 'long suffering' as Natalie and Maura started talking labels.

I looked back at them as names like Jimmy Choo, Galliano, Louboutin, Armani, Alexander McQueen, Versace, Vera Wang and more flew back and forth, before turning to look at Jane again.

"I think we need a few alternatives for us Jane, they go shopping and we go do something else" Jane looked over at the girls then back to me and smiled.

"Damn good idea, I like the way you think" Natalie and Maura broke off the discussion to look at us.

"You're not thinking of abandoning us; we need your opinion on what we might be trying on"

"Maura babe, I'm sure anything you pick out will look wonderful, you know I'm no good with high fashion. Besides you'll have Natalie with you, she always looks good so she'll give you much better advice than I ever could"

I desperately smothered a smile, admiring her escape attempt; 's_mooth Jane, very smooth_'; time to back her up here.

"Yeah Nat, you were commenting the other day on how good Maura always looks, I'm sure that together you could both come up with the perfect outfits. I know Jane and I will love whatever you both come up with, it'll look great" Fortunately Jane had my back.

"You each look sensational, so no matter what you choose; together you'll come up with something stunning"

"Yeah, this way it'll be a surprise, I love being surprised by what you're wearing, especially that high end lingerie you choose" Both women looked at me through narrowed eyes. I tried to look guileless.

"What? It's the truth. I loved the La Perla stuff you got just before we moved here" Fortunately it distracted Natalie, as Maura looked over at her.

"I do like La Perla, although I have a fondness for Agent Provocateur"

"I haven't much Agent Provocateur, just a white basque, do you like the range?"

"Oh yes, their material is lovely and very well made"

"I must check it out then"

I looked back to see Jane favour me with a discreet nod, looks like we'd escaped.

"Mind you, I do need some more nice lingerie; someone who will remain nameless tried taking my best bustier top off in a hurry one night, with their teeth! It's ruined now"

Or maybe not.

I felt my face burn. It wasn't helped by the smirk on Jane's face. Fortunately her reprieve was short.

"I know what you mean; a certain someone tore my best silk and lace garter belt, apparently they were in a hurry and couldn't wait for me to undo it" I smirked at Jane as she blushed, '_gotcha_'.

"It's agreed then, after the waxworks we should find some decent lingerie stockists, they can go off and do whatever they want while we get some decent shopping in"

"I'll do some research and we can compare notes on outlets, it should be fun"

Jane and I exchanged another long look, before tucking back into our lunch.


	15. Chapter 15

**Sharon and Anastasia chat**

Sharon's viewpoint

Another senior officers meeting behind me, I strode out of the room, feeling more than slightly annoyed at the world in general and Commander Taylor in particular.

The man was a misogynist pig, not content with attempting to undermine Brenda's handling of the warehouse shootings, offering to take the case off her hands due to the 'obvious overwork' Major Crimes was facing with ongoing sniper investigation, he had also attempted to have a go at Natalie Dearing's handling of the media in both cases.

His suggestion that we should have an experienced person handling the media for both cases had not gone down well with Brenda; in fact I had ended up tapping my foot against hers briefly before she could explode. When she turned to look at me I had gently gestured with my eyes towards Natalie Dearing, who was sitting there calmly between Captain Collins and Deputy Chief Kelso, waiting for Taylor to finish.

We had watched as Natalie had listened to his 'suggestion' politely, then gently leaning forward to catch his eye and nodding at him, before directing her attention around the table, although her words were meant for Pope.

She had thanked him for his kind offer, however she noted that she was aware that Robbery Homicide still had a number of outstanding cases open and that it was obvious that Taylor's attention and expertise was more urgently needed there to assist his team in bringing those cases to a much-needed close.

I had to smile as Pope leaped on her suggestion with almost unseemly haste, she had let Taylor down gently, making him look churlish with her politeness, while giving Pope the ammunition to fire back at Taylor, questioning how many open cases his team were working on.

When Taylor admitted he didn't have the figures currently to hand, Pope had shut him down brutally; telling him to concentrate on cleaning up his own division's messes and leaving other division's to deal with their own work.

I noticed both Collins and Kelso nodding at Natalie as she leaned back, two more people Taylor wouldn't be getting support from.

I was quite impressed, she'd come across as the soul of politeness, all sweet and reasonable, but giving Pope enough rope to hang Taylor. Obviously she had been expecting Taylor's attempt to usurp her and had been well-prepared.

I'd caught Brenda's small smile, which I'd mirrored, one which had grown as I looked at Taylor's complexion reddening noticeably.

Standing at the elevators, I was glad that one opened immediately, letting me beat a hasty exit from the meeting. As I stepped in I heard a quick 'hold the lift please' and looked up to see Anastasia Romanov hurrying towards the door. I blocked the doors long enough for her to jump in before stepping back and letting them close.

I pushed the button for my floor and looked at her, waiting for her to push the button for another floor, Instead she was staring at the wall fixedly. Shaking herself out of it she looked at me.

"Is Commander Taylor always a complete ass or is today just a bad day?" I had to smile gently.

"I'm afraid that's his natural state" She just shook her head in annoyance; obviously his attack on her partner's competence hadn't gone down too well.

"I'm surprised he hasn't choked on his own bile" she muttered, before looking up at me. With an obvious effort she turned away from her thoughts and focussed on me.

"I'm sorry Commander, Anastasia Romanov, I've been meaning to come and see you but unfortunately I've been a bit busy. My apologies"

"None needed Agent Romanov, Chief Johnson has mentioned some of the assistance you've been providing on the sniper case" She smiled at me.

"Please call me Ana, the Chief's been very kind, unfortunately we haven't had any luck in that case. I had meant to catch up with you, could we chat over a coffee when you're available; I'm buying" I smiled as the doors opened.

"I'd appreciate it if you called me Sharon. Is now a good time?" She smiled even wider.

"Sure is" I pushed the button for the cafeteria floor and the doors shut again.

"I hope you're not expecting too much, it is LAPD coffee" Ana shrugged.

"I came here from Seattle, the home of Starbucks" I raised an eyebrow.

"I… see"

We wandered into the cafeteria and ordered coffee, an espresso for me and a latte for her. I caught her watching the person behind the coffee machine with a judicious eye. Realising I was watching she shrugged.

"I trained as a barista, so I'm a bit twitchy about how other people make coffee"

"At Starbucks?" Her laugh was infectious.

"God no, I learnt while a student in Italy. My dad was in the army and I grew up all over the U.S. and Europe. I worked in a coffee shop in Rome for one summer. If you mess up the coffee there they tend to be vocal in their displeasure. Coffee is a serious business in Italy"

"I see; you speak Italian?" She smiled.

"I can pick up languages very quickly, at least enough to get by, but I lose them almost as quickly once I'm not speaking it every day. Now I'm back to a few stock phrases. The only language I'm proficient in is Russian and that's because it was spoken at home"

"Oh, was your family from Russia originally? The surname suggests it"

"Our family left Russia after the Civil War, they were White Russians who lost everything to the Communists and so they fled and came to America. Some of the émigrés desperately wanted to go back, but not our family. They really bought into the American dream, settled down and built a life here. The only thing they kept from the old country was names and everyone learning Russian" She shrugged.

"My dad was in the Army, as you can imagine they found a Russian speaker very useful during the Cold War, so lots of time spent in Europe or Washington" I don't know why,. But I was enjoying talking to Anastasia; she seemed a bright, happy person.

"It must have been interesting growing up in different countries" She made a maybe motion with her hand.

"It meant you made friends who lasted for two years and then you moved on. After a while it became a hassle, you tried a little less hard to make friends because you learned you were going to lose them soon enough. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone"

"Oh, that must have been hard"

"It was, but on the other hand I grew up learning so much about places that otherwise would have been names in text books, when you live there, you learn about the history from people whose families have lived there for centuries. It gives you a different perspective. What about you? Are you from LA?"

"Oh no, I grew up in the Northeast, Philadelphia actually, but I've been here for the last 15 years"

"This is my first time in LA; it's certainly different from Seattle. I'm still getting used to that strange hot ball in the sky. Up in Seattle it generally only puts in an annual appearance at the summer solstice and people sacrifice coffee beans to appease the angry gods and bring back the rain"

I couldn't help it; I had to laugh at that. I'd been to Seattle for a four day conference and it had drizzled pretty much the whole time.

"Speaking of sacrificing coffee beans, that's our coffee's made" I walked over to collect mine, enjoying her company.

Most people are far too scared of the wicked witch of FID to spend any time with me, whereas Anastasia didn't care. Probably because as an FBI agent she would be investigated by the Bureau's own internal affairs people, but I got the feeling it wouldn't have mattered too much to her even if I had jurisdiction over her.

We wandered over to a window and sat down at a couple of single sofa's that weren't as comfy as they looked.

We drank in a comfortable silence, as I watched her pull a small face at the taste.

"What's wrong?" She frowned.

"She overcooked the milk, it's not quite right. It's a different barista from yesterday, the one yesterday was much better. Ah well" I nodded; I could tell it was ok coffee, adequate but not great, but wouldn't be able to tell you why.

"Do you still practice as a barista?" She smiled.

"Natalie claims she only puts up with me because I make wicked coffee. We have a full coffee machine at home so I get to practice daily" I smiled at the thought.

"You don't make home visits do you? That sounds wonderful" She smiled back.

"Unfortunately not, so you'll have to come over, perhaps for lunch or dinner. Call it an apology for not coming to see you earlier" I laughed at the idea.

"No apology necessary, I understand how busy it gets"

"Nah, it'd be our pleasure, Natalie mentioned meeting you on our first day and you'd been very welcoming. Anyway, the reason I wanted to catch up was to introduce myself and have a quick chat about any help the Bureau can provide"

"Thank you. Normally, in an FID case it's pretty straightforward; it's just the 72 hour deadline that's a problem" She nodded slowly.

"I understand, on the other hand the Bureau's resources are available should you require our help. I can use the 72 hour deadline to push things through if you need them. Up in Seattle it's a smaller force, so the Bureau provided support for some services. The LAPD is so much larger everything you need is on tap, but we're here if you ever need us"

"I appreciate that Anastasia; let's hope it's not required"

"We're here if you need us"

We chatted for a while, getting to know you chit chat, about family and friends. She was an only child whose parents had passed away, leaving her with Natalie and Natalie's parents as her only family. She asked a few questions about me, family and such, I found her easy to chat to. In fact the more I saw of her the more I liked the person I was seeing.

It didn't hurt that she was very pretty and would probably be beautiful when she wasn't dressing down for work. She must be something special to have attracted and kept someone as stunning as Natalie Dearing, who would never lack for attention wherever she went.

Reflecting on the meeting we'd just come out of, a thought occurred to me.

"Is it hard working within the same organisation as Natalie?" She looked at me for a second, her head cocked to one side.

"Not usually, although there are some times… This morning's episode with Taylor for example" I nodded, that would have been hard, to listen to someone attacking your partner's competence and say nothing.

"The reason I didn't hang around afterwards is because I'd have been tempted to say something to Taylor, which just would have made Nat's job harder, she doesn't need that" She spread her hands in a 'helpless' gesture.

"I don't like it, but it's the way it is. It's not like she can't take care of herself, as you saw today, she saw him coming a mile off and dealt with it, but it's still hard" She sipped her coffee.

"We've had three years working together at the Seattle PD to work it out, but it can be difficult to bite your tongue and say nothing"

I thought about it, it must be hard, but I suppose they'd had plenty of time to establish boundaries. Speaking of which…

"How long have you been together?"

"Our four year anniversary is three months away, still wondering what to do to celebrate. I need to do something nice given she's put up with me this long" I smiled.

"I'm certain Natalie wouldn't describe it in those terms"

"Probably not, unless I've done something stupid, then she might" I laughed.

"Well it's incumbent on you to behave yourself, isn't it?" She smiled.

"I try, not always successfully"

"Then you just have to make it up to her later" I caught the gleam in her eye.

"Well, the best part is always making up afterwards, isn't it Sharon?" We laughed happily together, both understanding exactly what wasn't being said.

Looking at her, I could imagine her and Natalie together would be spectacular. Make up sex always was. Thinking of that reminded me of the years with Brooke, I resolutely pushed those thoughts aside, that was well in the past now.

Just then her cell rang, with an apologetic look she fished it out and took the call. Apparently some more information on the warehouse massacre had come in and she was needed at Bureau headquarters. Finishing the call she looked back at me.

"I'm sorry Sharon, I do have to run. It's been lovely to chat with you; I'd like to catch up again"

"I'm usually in my office most days if we don't have a case, drop in anytime"

"I will and thank you. Anyway, must dash. Ciao"

With a wave she left, heading for the elevators, while I finished the last of my coffee in peace. It was unlikely that anyone would bother me here anyway, everyone tended to avoid FID.

I felt myself drawn to Anastasia; something in her reminded me of Brooke, beyond the dark hair and warm smile. She was lovely and easy to chat to and the time together had flown.

She was also taken I reminded myself with a sigh. Even if she wasn't I'd always been reluctant to be involved with a work colleague, thinking it would be hard to make it work.

On the other hand it seemed to have worked out well for Natalie and Anastasia, they had been together for as long as Brooke and I had managed, but by this stage Brooke and I had been falling apart whereas they seemed to be going strong.

I frowned as I thought about it. They weren't the only ones who could make a workplace relationship succeed. Maura Isles and Jane Rizzoli also made it work, despite working even closer than Natalie and Anastasia.

I snorted to myself, even if I was willing to consider a relationship with someone at work, I couldn't think of anyone both interesting and available.

I found Brenda interesting, but she was straight as an arrow. If the rumours were true, Mickey Montoya was available, but she was far too young and pretty to look twice at me. There weren't too many others available in the LAPD that I'd find interesting enough to consider anyway.

I sighed, pleased for once that I had a meeting to attend, it took my mind away from things I couldn't change and preferred to avoid, like my current relationship status, or lack thereof.

As I stood up, I wondered if Brenda was available for a late lunch, we could have a few laughs at Taylor's expense, which was always worth making time for.

A short call later and lunch with Brenda was on, so the day wasn't a complete loss, despite how it started out. Now if only I could deal with my other problems as easily.

I sighed, remembering a saying my grandmother used to use whenever someone talked about what might have been.

"If wishes were fishes we'd all cast nets"


	16. Chapter 16

**The girls play tourist**

Jane's viewpoint

Griffith Park was huge, intellectually I'd known that 4000 acres was big, but actually driving through it brought that home to me. We'd met up with Natalie and Ana at ten in the Observatory car park and started working our way towards the Planetarium, which Maura really wanted to see.

I'd considered hiring a bike to get around the Park, but Maura was wearing new white linen pants and heels, which weren't really suitable for bike riding. Sometimes Maura and my ideas of casual didn't really mesh all that well. I was wearing jeans, runners and a polo shirt, while she was turned out in pants, a silk blouse, a Hermes scarf and a wide brimmed hat, stylish but not really casual.

Ana and Natalie seemed to have the same idea as me, Ana in cargo pants, a white shirt and hiking boots, while Natalie had on a tight pair of jeans, a polo shirt, wedge heels and sunglasses. I looked at them both and realised that while I was the guy in our relationship, I didn't know if they played by the same rules.

It was interesting to watch them though, as they strolled around holding hands and happily laughing and kissing, they were more open than I was used to, but I didn't mind, especially as Maura had her hand in mine and was smiling happily at me. I'd do anything to make her smile; god knows she got me into dresses often enough by using that against me, '_Rizzoli, you are so whipped_'.

We visited the Planetarium, where its Light of the Valkyries show about the Northern Lights was spectacular, enough so that even Maura was rendered speechless by the amazing imagery above us. I'd never really seen much of the Northern Lights, but the show was cool, I'd even recognised Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries, much to Maura's pleasure, although I wasn't going to ruin it by telling her I only knew it from watching Apocalypse Now.

After the show finished, we wandered back outside, still a little subdued by the impact of the presentation. Eventually we took their car down to the main Park area and wandered around for a while, taking in the parks, gardens and attractions, before heading off to find a coffee and some lunch.

I was actually enjoying the day, I got to spend time with Maura having fun, which is always a positive in my book, and the others were fun company. I hadn't done much outdoors for a while and the day was nice, which made me look forward to spending more time out in it.

We spent some time chatting about that, it seemed that they had often gone hiking regularly in the mountains around Seattle. You could apparently get into the wilderness really quickly from downtown Seattle as it wasn't all that big and they apparently would go camping up there in the summer.

The last time we'd done anything away from the city had been a few months back when Maura and I had taken a weekend off and rented a beach house, just a weekend to spend together, we'd practically spent all of the Saturday in bed, reconnecting after a couple of bad weeks. It had been Maura's suggestion; she had booked everything and then told me. She really is the bossy one, even if she is nice and polite about it. More often than I like I just roll over and do what she says. I sighed. '_Whipped, I swear_'.

We'd found a shop which sold cold drinks and ice creams, though Maura had practically had kittens at the thought of eating the soft serve, claiming it was likely full of all sorts of possible airborne and waterborne bacteria. In the end she compromised with a sundae, although I couldn't see much difference.

We wandered around for a bit longer, before finding a café that served coffee. While Maura and Anastasia went to the bathroom, Natalie went to order the coffees while I looked out over the view. It was pretty spectacular, I could see the Hollywood sign in the distance, it was kinda neat. You grew up seeing that sign on television and in the movies; to actually be standing here in LA looking at it with my own eyes was pretty amazing.

I turned around to look back into the shop when I realised something bad was happening. Two black guys, all bling and shit, were hassling Natalie. I started walking towards them, I didn't like the body language, they were deep in her personal space and she was backing off, looking to move away from them. As I stepped up I realised they had been hitting on her and weren't taking no for an answer.

The larger of the two, who I tagged punk 1, stepped to block her movement away

"Hey girl, we wanna party and you look like fun" Natalie stepped away from him and tried to step around punk 2, who also blocked her path. She was trying to calm the situation down and talk her way out, though I don't think these two were listening, or more likely listening to their hormones and thinking with their dick.

"I'm really not interested guys, I'm here with someone else, please let me go" Punk 2 reached out a hand to grab her arm.

"Pretty blonde bitch like you, all uppity and shit, we take care of that for you" Punk 1 had to add his piece.

"Won't be so uppity when we be finished wif you. Fuck that all out of you"

"Please step aside, my partners a cop and will be back in a moment. Let me go" The last was said as punk 2 grabbed her arm and pulled her close. Punk 1 obviously didn't believe her.

"A cop? You too fine to be a cop's bitch, make you mine though"

I was seriously unhappy that I wasn't carrying a pistol; I'd left it in the safe at home as we were on a day off. Hopefully these two would back off if they saw a badge.

"LAPD, back off!" That got their attention, they both turned around, though punk 2 still had Natalie's arm. "Let her go and step away from her"

Both punks looked at me, obviously sizing me up, I reached inside my shirt and pulled the shield out on a lanyard, letting them see it.

"You can back away, then walk away or you can enjoy a ride down to the station and an assault charge, your call" Some distance behind them I saw the bathroom door open, Ana holding it for Maura.

Maura stopped suddenly, obviously seeing what was happening and part turned to tell Ana. Even from here I could see her whole demeanour change, as she pushed past Maura and started moving quickly towards us.

Punk 1 was feeling lucky; obviously he thought they could both take me.

"Fuck you bitch, you think you enough to take us both" I smiled.

"Maybe, but I'm sure me and my partner there can kick your sorry asses" I could see Ana moving in quickly with an expression that promised death for Punk 2, who still had Natalie by the arm.

I could see him thinking I was bluffing when punk 2 spotted Ana, alerting his buddy. Fortunately he let go of Natalie's arm, allowing her to quickly back away. I could see Maura at the counter, probably demanding the person behind the counter call for security, as punk 1, who seemed to be the leader, taunted us.

"I ain't backing down from a pair of pig cunts like you, gonna fuck you both up" I really hoped like hell neither of them was armed, cause I knew Ana wasn't either.

Unfortunately, punk 1 pulled a flick knife out of his back pocket and popped it open. His friend just grinned at Ana and slipped a set of brass knuckles onto his meaty fist.

"You're last chance pal, walk away or get upgraded to attempted assault and resisting arrest" In reply he just grinned and waved the blade in my direction.

Behind him I saw Ana slow and drop into some kind of martial arts stance and start to circle to the left, which put her between Natalie and the threat. I couldn't argue with that, I'd do exactly the same for Maura.

I suddenly jumped back as my punk swung the knife, missing me but not by much. Damn, this clown was serious; I stepped to the left as he swung again, wide slashes rather than trying to stab with the knife, which were easier to block and dodge.

Ana blocked her perp's first two swings, as I noticed we were circling towards each other. Another swing and I tried to block the knife, but he was stronger than I thought, knocking me off balance. Fortunately, Ana saw his arm swing back her way for another go and lunged forward, grabbing it, pulling him off balance and delaying the swing.

I saw the opportunity as his head swung towards her, just enough time to leave me an opening. His wide spread stance gave me an idea and I took a quick step forward and swung my foot in a perfect kick as hard as I possibly could right into his groin.

Tom Brady would have been proud of me, I connected right on target and the guy folded, dropping like a stone and rolling on the floor screaming in a high pitched voice, the knife, the fight and pretty much everything else forgotten as his world shrank to his balls and the agony that had taken up residence there.

"That's right punk, sing soprano for me" I half grinned, half snarled at him on the ground, before looking up at the other fight.

Ana was blocking her assailant's blows, but he was both bigger and stronger than she and was driving her back. Fortunately, he had his back to me, which gave me the perfect opportunity to tackle him round the legs.

The bastard was strong, but I knocked him off balance, toppling to the floor on his back. I was hoping he'd stay down but he was already struggling to get back up when with a yell, Ana jumped up and dropped, knee first, into his chest, smashing him back into the floor.

Even from where I was I could hear the sickening crack as at least one rib gave way, maybe more. Ana sprang back ready to strike again, as I rolled away from his legs and jumped to my feet, but he wasn't interested in much of anything for a while.

We paused for a few seconds, slowly realising that it was over and panting from the exertion and adrenalin rush, before we started to relax. I looked over at Ana, who looked at me, before we exchanged smiles.

"Thanks for the assist Ana"

"No, thank you Jane, he was a bit too big for me"

We were standing there, when Ana was enveloped in a crying Natalie. I had just enough time to smile when Maura reached me.

"Are you alright Jane, are you hurt?" Her eyes and hands were all over me, searching for injuries, but I seemed unhurt.

Natalie was crying on Ana's shoulder, apologising over and over for causing the fight, as Ana slowly calmed her down.

Looking back at Maura and seeing the beginnings of tears in her eyes, I smiled reassuringly.

"I'm ok babe, not a scratch" I lifted my arms wide. "See"

"Jane, you could have been hurt, thank god he wasn't carrying a gun" Just then I heard Natalie's teary voice.

"It's my fault Maura, I should have seen them coming and avoided them, I'm so sorry, are you alright Jane?"

I turned, wrapping an arm around Maura to reassure her.

"I'm fine, which is more than I can say for these two" The one I'd dealt with was curled into a little ball, making small crying noises, while Ana's victim was trying to sit up and failing.

"I'm so sorry Jane, I didn't want you to get hurt. Maura, I'm sorry" Natalie was still recovering her composure, probably a little shocked I thought. Ana wrapped her arms around her and pulled her in, whispering soothing words into her ear. After a few seconds she nodded and stood back, pulling herself together as I noticed a small crowd of onlookers watching. I held up my badge.

"LAPD, has someone called 911?" I saw the Asian kid behind the counter nod.

"Yeah, I called Park security, they should be here soon" I nodded my thanks at him. I looked back to see Natalie standing there, one arm around Anastasia.

"Jane, thank you for rescuing me, I'm so sorry this happened" I shrugged.

"From what I heard, it didn't matter what you were going to say, they weren't listening" Ana nodded.

"Good thing Jane was here though" She looked over and nodded to me. "Thank you"

"Hey, it's ok" I looked up as I saw a pair of uniforms making their way through the other end of the building. The kid behind the counter pointed in our direction and I flashed the badge at them as they approached.

"LAPD, Rizzoli, Major Crimes, we had an attempted assault here" They nodded and looked over the situation, talking in the two punks on the ground and the four of us standing there.

"What happened?"

"These two decided that they wanted to party with my friend here and didn't take no for an answer, they wouldn't back down and were carrying concealed weapons. We subdued them and waited for you guys to arrive" Ana was talking to the other uniform.

"These two will probably need a bus; I felt his ribs crack when I dropped him, plus Jane's probably given that one a new career as an opera singer" The officer with me looked around.

"Well need a statement detective, plus your friends will have to give them as well" I nodded.

"No problem, were all LAPD, except for her, she's FBI" He looked at the two guys on the ground, then back at me, before giving a barking laugh.

"Not their best day was it?" I grinned; I could laugh about it now, even if it wasn't a laughing matter when it happened.

"Nah, not really, they could have walked away at the start and I would have let them go; now they've got a laundry list of charges" Ana looked over our way.

"You can add assaulting a Federal Officer as well" He shook his head as his partner radioed for ambulances and black and whites, then cuffed them.

"Oh they really fucked up this time didn't they?"

Half an hour later we'd each given quick statements. The shops security camera footage backed us up and we were ready to leave. We wandered back out to Natalie and Ana's car and stood around for a moment, before Natalie turned and faced me.

"Jane, thank you. I was really scared, it all happened so fast. One moment I was standing there, the next they weren't talking no for an answer and boxing me in. I appreciate you putting yourself at risk for me" I shrugged.

"It's OK, you weren't at fault; they were. Pretty obvious they weren't going to take no for an answer. I'm just glad I was there to help"

She smiled at me and stepped up, giving me a quick hug and before I knew it, a kiss on the cheek, before stepping back

"None the less thank you, thank you so much" I felt myself flush slightly at the attention.

"It's ok, really" I looked to see Maura beaming at me. "What?"

"You were very brave Jane" She leaned in to give me a kiss, definitely not on the cheek and definitely not innocent.

After about ten seconds she stepped back so we could breath again, at which point I realised I had a silly smile on my face, but hey, it's Maura, she can get away with stuff like that.

I looked back at Natalie and Ana, who had their arms around each other. Ana raised an eyebrow and smiled.

"I don't think I can top that…" " I smirked at her "…and I'm not even going to try" She held out her hand. "Thanks Jane"

We shook hands and exchanged a look, before I smiled.

"You're not bad in a fight Ana, I'd be happy to have you backing me up" She grinned.

"Same here, but let's not make a habit of it"

I noticed Maura and Natalie exchanging a look of their own, as they both pulled us in a little tighter. Maura gave me one of those head tilt looks she does so well.

"I should certainly hope not Jane, I can think of much better things we could be doing right now than fighting" I felt myself blushing again.

"Yeah, like lunch!" I turned to see Ana smiling at me, as I recall we were looking for coffees before all that started. Natalie smiled.

"Lunch sounds good, how about we find somewhere to eat, then we can head off" I frowned.

"Head off where?" Maura smiled at me.

"Shopping darling remember, we're going shopping and after what happened just now you're coming with us" I looked at her.

"We are?"

"Yes you are, obviously I need to keep you with me to stay out of trouble" Natalie was equally adamant.

"Excellent idea Maura, let's get some lunch and we can head off to Beverly Hills" Natalie sounded a little wary.

"Um Blondie, what exactly are we doing in Beverly Hills?" Natalie's voice dripped innocence.

"Why, we're shopping at Agent Provocateur, for some new lingerie to replace the ones you ruined"

"Oh"

"Plus I want to get you something nice, something I'll enjoy seeing you in" I heard Maura's chuckle beside me.

"Not to mention something you'll enjoy taking off her" Natalie grinned as I gave Maura a look.

"Well, yes, exactly" I had to laugh at Ana's expression, until Maura stepped in.

"You need something nice too Jane and now is as good a time as any" She frowned at me playfully, as I realised what I was in for. "Hmm, something in a satin basque, perhaps a fire engine red would do" Ana snickered.

"Yes, fire engine red sounds good" I just shot her the Rizzoli death glare, but she was preoccupied as Natalie was speaking.

"Don't get too cocky Tsarina, I've been browsing their website and there's a black lace corset you'd look simply delicious in, I can't wait to see you in it"

Maura and Natalie smiled at each other as Natalie offered Maura her arm and they strolled towards the car.

Ana and I exchanged a look, complete with rolled eyes as Natalie looked back and laughed.

"C'mon guys, it'll be fun"

Maura winked at me and smiled, before summoning me with a toss of her blonde locks.

Anastasia just looked at me.

"We are so…" I nodded.

"Whipped; the word you're looking for is whipped" She just laughed.

"Yeah" She pulled out the car keys. "C'mon, we've got a whipping to attend"


	17. Chapter 17

**The third sniper attack**

Natalie's viewpoint

I'd got the call from despatch on the way in to work, so I reversed course and made my way towards the crime scene. Ana had already left for an early meeting in at the Bureau headquarters, so I didn't have to drop her off.

I put the address into the GPS and followed the directions til it led me to a nondescript apartment complex. The area was obviously getting gentrified, with older buildings either being refurbished or torn down to make way for new ones. There was a new multi-story apartment complex going up across the street from the address I'd been given with construction workers standing around, watching all the excitement.

I parked as close as I could, got out, locked the car and made my way to the scene, ignoring the usual catcalls and whistles from the construction workers watching. I wonder if they truly realise how much it made them look like fools, as if I was going to do anything more than ignore them like a bunch of chattering, howling monkeys.

The young female officer at the building entrance shook her head as I walked up.

"Idiot's, I bet most of them are single and wonder why they can't get laid" I shrugged.

"What do construction workers use for contraception?" She'd heard it before.

"Their personalities" We shared a laugh, as I fished out my ID.

"Natalie Dearing, LAPD Media" She smiled.

"Hiya Ms Dearing, I thought it might be you" I tilted my head at her, looking the question. She shrugged. "Word gets around quickly" I smiled.

"Hopefully nothing too bad" She smiled back.

"Nope, not at all. Have a good one, your vic's on the fourth floor." I noted the name on the badge.

"Thanks Officer Robinson, it's Natalie by the way. You have a good one as well" She smiled a little wider.

"It's Savannah, see you around Natalie" I nodded as I walked in. Mentally shrugging, word travels fast, or at least some of it had.

The fourth floor had another officer by the lift checking ID's, he pointed me down the hall where I found an open door and a cluster of uniforms.

They stepped back and let me in to a nicely furnished unit, lots of Japanese influence, futons and low furniture, hanging prints and paper fans on the wall, small artworks on a low table near the wall, the effect was supposed to be calming, unfortunately the scene was anything but.

A young women lay face down in a wide spread pool of blood, a quick glance up showed the expected divot in the wall, partially through a wall hanging which had been shredded by the concrete shrapnel and spattered by blood. As I looked around, I spotted Tao and Sanchez standing near the body talking, while Gabriel was talking on his mobile phone.

I grabbed the proffered protective booties and slipped them over my heels, plus the gloves on offer, not that I intended touching anything but rules were rules. I stood by the door, looking down at the body then out to through the large shattered window to the construction site across the street. Maura wouldn't need to recreate the victim's pose this time; the construction site covered the entire vista outside.

I leaned up against the wall, waiting on someone, probably Brenda, to arrive and provide me with some direction for the media. They weren't here yet, but they would be soon and would start demanding answers. I could only soft peddle them the same stuff for so long.

I looked around the room, nodding at the detectives, taking it all in.

Besides the Asian influence, the room had a number of personal touches, pictures of a strikingly pretty African American woman, in an evening gown, out with a group of girls, cuddling a cute Labrador puppy, leaning on the bonnet of a Lamborghini at a car show dressed in a promotionally-branded leotard and sitting between an older couple; probably her parents by the look of it.

I felt a wash of sadness, a life wrapped up in pictures, now gone in a single horrific moment.

A bustle of people and a cheery '_good mornin' everyone_' announced the arrival of Brenda; she swept into the room, pausing to slip on the booties and gloves while her eyes scanned the room, missing nothing.

"And a very good morning to you Natalie" The smile was wide and open, Brenda being her lovely self; I just had to smile back.

"Good morning to you Chief"

"You're here early" I shrugged.

"Got the call on the way into work, it wasn't that far off the way in so it wasn't hard" She nodded, before walking over to the victim, her eyes already sweeping the building across the street.

As she chatted to the detectives, I leaned back and continued to scan the room, taking in the rest of the room. The place wasn't that large but was neat and tidy, or had been.

As Sanchez pointed out a handset for the phone lying a few feet from the victim, Brenda was already asking Tao to pull phone records, it looked like the sniper had phoned the victim to get her standing in the one place long enough to take the shot.

"What do we have on our victim Sergeant Gabriel?"

"Chief, the place is rented to Crystal Williams, Ms Williams is apparently a model, she's been a resident here for the last four years, and her neighbours say she's a nice, relatively quiet person; very few issues with noise or visitors. We're getting next of kin details; it appears her parents live in Arizona" Brenda nodded.

"And what happened here?"

"Well Chief, several people in the building heard loud noises, but the person next door heard the impact on the wall and knocked. When she got no answer, she reported it to the building supervisor, who came up and after knocking repeatedly, used his master key to open the door and look in. He saw the body and immediately saw the vic was dead, locked the door and rang 911 at 6.36. The super's an ex-cop, long retired, he secured the scene and waited for the first uniforms to arrive" Brenda nodded as David flipped a page in his notebook.

"They arrived at about 6.49; major crimes got the call at 7.10. Working back suggests the shots were taken about 6.10"

"Good, thank you Sergeant. We'll need to have a chat to the super, please make sure he's available"

"Yes Ma'am".

The Chief stood up and wandered around the room, looking out at the construction site across the road.

"When Lieutenant's Flynn and Provenza get here, please ask them to take charge of the search of the building opposite, look for anything that might help us find the shooter" Her mouth twisted in annoyance. "Speaking of which, where is everyone?" Tao handled that one.

"Not sure Chief, they got the call at the same time we did"

"It's because some idiot parked a concrete truck at the end of the street, unable to get into the building site across the road and caused a traffic jam" I smiled as Jane Rizzoli strode into the room, annoyance radiating off her. "Sorry Chief"

"Good morning Detective, I take it the problem's being fixed?" She nodded once.

"Uniform's clearing it up as we speak now Chief" Noticing me she smiled and nodded.

"Nat" I smiled back, happy to see her again, even if it had been only three days since she'd fought for me.

"Jane, lovely to see you. How was the rest of your weekend?"

"Not too bad, after we escaped that little shopping trip, we had dinner in then we went running yesterday down at the beach; you?"

"Watched movies Saturday night, got domestic on Sunday and had a quiet one" She smiled and nodded again, before moving into the room.

Over the next few minutes, the rest of the squad arrived, plus Maura and her team. Brenda started assigning tasks to each member as Maura went to work.

Examining the body, Maura formally pronounced her dead, everyone knew it but it was a formality that had to be done, before looking up at the Chief.

"The victim was shot in the face, just below the right eye, with the bullet exiting through the back of the cranium. Almost a level shot, she was facing the shooter and may have even have seen the muzzle flash, given the short distance"

On cue everyone turned to look at the half-finished building across the street. It couldn't have been more than 150 feet away, a ridiculously easy shot for someone with the level of skill the sniper had already demonstrated.

As Maura stood up, Gabriel appeared around a corner, looking for Brenda.

"Chief, you've gotta see this" He then ducked back round the corner. Curious, I made my way round the room, avoiding any chance of contaminating the evidence, to see what he'd found.

Brenda, Gabriel, Jane and Buzz were all looking at a large framed poster of the victim in a wedding dress, it was a blown up magazine cover of a bridal magazine,. Three feet wide by six feet high, probably her first magazine cover. I'm sure she would have looked lovely, but couldn't tell as a hole had blown straight through the face, the shrapnel from the wall behind having ripped up the area around the bullet hole when the 50 cal bullet hit.

Brenda and Jane looked back over their shoulder, up the corridor, past me and through the window, straight into the construction site across the road, before sharing a look.

"That looks pretty personal to me" Brenda stated as they looked back at the mutilated image

"Ya' think?" Jane mumbled, before catching Brenda looking at her. "Sorry Chief"

"Who was the first officer on the scene? Detective, would you please check to see if the light was on in this corridor when they arrived? I want to know if the shooter could see this picture or if they knew it was here" Jane nodded.

"Gotcha, I'm on it"

I stepped back out of the way to let her pass, wandering back near the door out of the way. Looking down I saw her purse, cell phone and keys on a small table, together with a couple of opened letters and bills plus some business cards.

Curious, I knelt down, picking up one of the business cards, which had her name, the word 'Model' and a cell phone number. I looked over at Brenda where she was peering out across the street.

"Chief, got a moment?" She turned to look at me, taking in my unusual position before wandering over.

"What do you have Natalie" I handed the card to her. She looked at it for a moment before I saw her eyes widen, as she realised the same thing I had. She smiled at me and nodded.

"Sure you're not looking for a change in career?" I smiled back.

"No thanks Chief; I'll leave that to the experts"

She considered the number on the card again, before looking back at me.

"Must be personal" Maura, who had told her crew to remove the body, stepped up.

"Oh?" Brenda handed her the business card.

"All of her work was done on her cell, it's the number she gave out, but the killer rang her on her home phone. That sounds like someone who knew her, don't you think"

Maura looked down at the card, then at the cell on the table, then back at us.

"Yes, it certainly does"


	18. Chapter 18

**Maura extends a dinner invitation**

Maura's viewpoint

I was sitting in my office reviewing my report on Crystal Williams, the third sniper victim, when a message popped up on my computer's calendar, reminding me that I was supposed to call Natalie Dearing.

Jane and I had agreed that we would invite Natalie and Anastasia to dinner, they seemed like a nice couple and we knew hardly anyone here in L.A. I felt it was good to meet new people, especially for Jane, as she was likely to feel the distance from her family in Boston more than I did, although I did miss Sunday dinners in the Rizzoli family home.

I opened up the internal telephone directory and searched the Dearing's before placing a call. Unfortunately it went through to voice mail, so I left a message asking her to call me and hung up, turning back to the report.

I made some notes to talk through with my subordinates as part of their professional development; I had tentatively tagged at least two of them as having the potential to become Chief Medical Examiners and I take the mentoring role seriously. I was deep in thought when I was interrupted by a knock on my door.

"Come in" The door opened and Natalie looked in.

"Hi Maura, you wanted to see me?" I blinked at her for a moment before remembering what I had called about.

"Natalie, please, come in and have a seat" She settled in one of the new lounge seats I had ordered and I sat next to her.

"Hey, these are new; and nice" I smiled, pleased that she had noticed the change. "It's been a busy week, how have you been?" I nodded, it had been.

"Not too bad thank you, although Jane is starting to complain that I am getting home later and later, which I find ironic, given her work patterns when she is busy" Nat smiled.

"That sounds familiar. Ana gets tied up in her work and I have to nag her to not skip meals, to come home at a reasonable hour, to get a good night's sleep" She shrugged. "I don't like the nagging wife look but someone has to take care of them, god knows they won't"

"I have been successful over time in getting Jane to improve her dietary habits, but she tends to slide into bad old habits when she is consumed by a major case"

"Yeah, Ana starts eating junk food and candy when she gets bogged down in a case; so Jane's just as bad?"

"Unfortunately yes, I've told Jane that coffee, donuts, burgers and beer are not essential food groups, despite what her fellow officers may think" She snickered at my choice of words.

"Well, someone has to look after them, obviously they're not" I smiled.

"That in fact was why I called you earlier" She cocked her head to one side.

"Oh?"

"Yes, we were wondering if you both might like to come over for dinner this weekend. It gets both of them away from work and we would hopefully have a relaxing evening, as long as we get no calls" She smiled happily.

"Maura, we'd love to. Which night suits?"

"Is Saturday suitable?"

"Sure is, we'll be there"

"Won't you have to check with Anastasia?" I asked "She might be working" Natalie shook her head decisively.

"No, I'll just tell her this is how it'll be. She knows better than to argue with me on stuff like this" I smiled, remembering how Jane might complain but she usually went along with whatever I planned. "Besides, she would love to come"

"Then it's agreed, Saturday night, about 6 PM?"

"Sure, can you text me the address?" She handed over a business card with her cell number.

Natalie leaned back in her chair, obviously in no real hurry to wrap up.

"So, how are you finding the new job?" I paused for a moment, looking for the right words.

"It's intense. Back in Boston we had a smaller team, both in the M.E's office and in Homicide, but we also had a smaller work load. Here it's a much busier, larger team" Nat nodded, obviously interested. "I'm glad I have several assistant medical examiners to assist me, as I would not be able to handle all the workload that passes through the office without them" She nodded for me to go on.

"I love the opportunity, and the challenges that come with a bigger role, but I don't like the time it's taking, keeping me from getting home on time" I smiled at her.

"I have found that I enjoy being home when Jane arrives, making sure that she is coming home to a home, not a house" Looking over at Natalie I smiled a bit wistfully. "Doesn't sound terribly liberated does it?" She grinned back at me.

"Hell, we're both in open, committed lesbian relationships, in love with the best looking women I know, can't get much more liberated than that" Well, when she put it that way… I smiled.

"So, how is your job going?"

"It's both easier and harder than the one I had in Seattle" She sighed. "On one hand, as senior media liaison I'm not stuck with the boring jobs like updating the LAPD Wikipedia page or writing speeches for the Chief to the local Rotary. On the other hand, the role is senior enough that I get called for all manner of issues, all of them major, and everyone assumes I'm here to wave my magic wand and make all the department's bad media problems magically vanish" Her mouth quirked.

"I'm certain Pope thinks I can just wander in front of the camera's, shake my booty and hey presto, positive coverage" I laughed at both her words and her expression.

"Well, it is a nice booty" She tried to look offended, but I caught her trying to hide a smile.

"Doctor Isles! I'm shocked. Have you been checking me out?" I tried to look innocent.

"No, but I hear the comments in the corridors as I pass. I believe that it's currently, what's that Twitter term? Ah yes, 'trending' right now" Natalie looked appalled, though I could see the gleam in her eyes.

"Trending eh?"

"Mm huh" I nodded, enjoying the game.

"Well I suppose I should be flattered, that somewhere out there people are commenting on my 'booty'. On second thoughts, that's kinda creepy too" Natalie rolled her eyes at me, which immediately reminded me of Jane, who does exactly the same thing, especially when she is either annoyed or playful.

"Well I wouldn't sit too smug there Doctor Isles, as I can attest that your 'trending' right now as well"

"I am, how?" She grinned.

"Ana told me that she wandered into a situation yesterday. Apparently a number of narcotics guys were having a discussion about who had the best ass in the department, with yours and mine both in contention, along with Chief Johnson's and Commander Raydor's amongst others"

I was intrigued, but wasn't too surprised; I knew that I had been the subject of similar discussion back in Boston. Back there however it had been kept quiet, mostly because everyone knew that they would have to deal with a very pissed Jane Rizzoli if she caught them.

"Me? Well I suppose I should be flattered, however I cannot imagine that Anastasia would have taken it too well, hearing her partner being openly rated like that. It's a good thing Jane wasn't there. What happened?" She laughed.

"It seems that they hadn't been very discrete and Commander Raydor had heard what they were discussing before she rounded the corner. Apparently she was in the middle of expressing her displeasure rather forcefully when Ana walked into it" I smiled at the thought of Sharon Raydor in full on attack mode; I had already heard some stories about the intense Force Investigation Division chief.

"I suspect they will be a bit more discrete next time, or at least check around corners first" I paused as a thought occurred to me. "I'm rather surprised that neither Jane nor Anastasia were in contention, they are both beautiful women"

"Yeah, but they tend to go in for slacks and jackets, which do a better job of concealing their assets than what we normally wear"

"Well, I'm rather pleased that they remain our secret, rather than a subject of community discussion"

"That's not going to last though, especially with the LAPD's annual Benefit Ball coming up reasonably soon" I frowned.

"I wasn't aware that it was coming up. When is it?"

"Last Saturday of next month; I was told by Belinda, Chief Pope's secretary, that as senior staff we are expected to attend"

Oh, Jane won't like that, but she won't leave me to attend alone"

"Well, I can imagine that she would look hot in a nice dress"

"She would probably prefer her uniform, she hates getting dressed up at the best of times, let alone in a dress" Natalie shook her head.

"No go I'm afraid, dress code is formal, not uniforms, tuxedos for men and gowns for women" I smiled for a moment, my mind a long way away, to a formal night back in Boston I was brought back to earth by Natalie.

"Hello Maura, you there?" I snapped out of my reverie and focussed on Natalie.

"Sorry"

"Where did you go, must have been someplace nice, judging by that look on your face" I laughed.

"Not long after we started formally dating, I had to go to a charity event and bring a partner, the invitation just said tux or gown, without specifying genders so Jane wore a tuxedo. I think we scandalised a few people" Natalie nodded slowly, her eyes half closed.

"She would have looked sensational, given she's so tall and slim" She considered the thought for a moment. "Hot too, very hot"

"Yes, I had to rescue her from the attentions of quite a few men AND women who obviously agreed with you" She laughed happily.

"Nothing quite like getting a bit territorial to let them know how we feel. It reminds them who they belong to. Ana says she loves seeing me get all possessive when someone tries to pick her up when we're out"

"Well, I have to say Jane was… appreciative of my efforts to protect her honour" I could feel my cheeks redden at the memory.

"I hope I get the chance to see you doing just that at the ball, it's a shame the tux won't get a repeat performance though" I raised an eyebrow.

"It's still sitting in the closet, waiting for another opportunity"

"Damn, that's an evil image. Now I'm thinking of Ana in one" She shivered, partly for effect. "Thank you Doctor Isles, now I have to go back to my desk with that image in my head, while I try and do some work"

"Always a pleasure Miss Dearing" Laughing she stood and headed for the door, turning as she reached it.

"Saturday at six; we'll see you then" Winking she turned and strolled out.

I sat back and smiled as she pulled the door shut after her. I liked Natalie, she was happy and fun and nice. I found myself looking forward to Saturday; it should be a good night.

Sighing, I turned back to the pile of paperwork on my desk, wishing it was Friday afternoon.


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N ** The wonderful characters of 'The Closer' and 'Rizzoli and Isles' belong to their respective rights holders, no infringement is intended, but as always, thanks for letting us have our way with them, if only for a moment.

A quick thanks to Kyra Sedgwick, Mary McDonnell, Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander for the warmth and depth you bring to the portrayals of our favourite detectives.

**Chasing the cartel**

Brenda's viewpoint

There are times when staying at home in my disaster of an apartment is preferable to coming to work.

Not only do I now dread going to sleep on Monday night, knowing that I will have a dead woman to deal with the following morning, I've picked up Sharon's habit of loathing the Thursday senior officers meeting as well.

This morning, sandwiched neatly between Tuesday and Thursday, Major Crimes had a review meeting to go over all the info we have on the factory massacre. I was dreading it as we didn't have all that much to go on and even less new information coming in.

The frustration drove me into the welcoming arms of my one true love, the top draw of my desk and far too much chocolate.

Following that I'd done the other thing I do when I'm feeling frustrated, I called Sharon and told her that as long as she didn't mind listening to me rant, lunch was on me.

We met downstairs and she led me to a quiet bar that did a decent lunch menu, we got settled in a rear booth and started chatting, well it was mostly me talking and her listening.

We'd done this plenty of times before, when we couldn't think straight or we needed a second brain thinking something over, drag the other person out to lunch and talk it through.

Given it was her case too, I didn't feel too bad about spending an extended lunch chatting about it, plus I really wanted her input.

"According to Anastasia, the Bureau is certain it was Los Zetas that shot up the warehouse, those people are crazy" I took a tiny sip of wine as she thought about it.

"Aren't they the ex-military, who ended up working for a cartel, they branched off on their own didn't they?" I nodded, putting down my glass of white. We allowed ourselves one each on these working lunches.

"Yep, now they're one of the biggest and definitely the most feared of the cartels. Their trademark is the indiscriminate use of firepower and absolutely no qualms against using it against innocent civilians" She frowned.

"Why here and now?"

"I don't know, but Sanchez brought some interesting news from the Gang Task Force" Sanchez kept close links to Commander Reynolds's people, given how often we ran up against gang influences in our work, Reynolds and I had agreed that it was only prudent.

"After the leader of the Blood Catorcies, a guy known as Amos, got killed in the warehouse, the second in command was a guy called T-Rex, with two senior lieutenants, Kay Jay and Little Dog: I pulled a face. "God who thinks up these names"

"I don't know Brenda, maybe they think they sound tougher that way" I sniggered.

"That usually lasts until they end up in prison and meet the real tough guys, the one's who like fresh meat after dark" She laughed.

"Or the certifiably weird who like the taste of fresh meat, literally" I nodded, remembering one particularly nasty case we closed a few years back.

"Oh yeah, I forgot him" She shook her head a little sadly.

"He's not the only one we've put away who likes their meat… fresh" I shuddered.

"Where do all these crazies come from, why here?"

"Something in the water maybe, I don't know. So what was the news from Reynolds's people?"

"Well it appears that there are a few new vacancies in the Blood Catorcies senior ranks" She sat back, raising one elegant eyebrow in a silent question. "T-Rex and several close friends were gunned down in a drive by early yesterday evening and Kay Jay was found dead together with his brother early this morning, shot down at his home"

"So that leaves Little Dog the defacto leader of the Blood Catorcies? That's a rapid promotion even by the somewhat loose standards of LA street gangs. Makes me wonder why he's still alive when the others aren't" I shrugged, twisting the glass stem on the table

"Apparently he's not in hiding, though whether that's bravado or stupidity I'm not sure" She made a non-committal motion with her hand.

"We'll find out soon enough"

"Probably, Anastasia passed on something an FBI informant in Mexico heard, that a Los Zeta's member with too much to drink had said that the hit on the Catorcies had been part of their move on another cartel, with more planned" Sharon grimaced.

"That's not good, for anyone, not just their targets" We paused as the waitress brought us our meals, a steak in my case, chicken in hers. We spent a few moments enjoying lunch before diving back into it the case. Sharon kicked it off again.

"What else do you have?"

"The Blood Catorcies were affiliated with another cartel, the Sinaloa Cartel. They apparently bought cocaine from them and were cutting it down at the warehouse, then shipping it out in smaller packages to street dealers"

"So Los Zetas decided to hit the Sinaloa where it hurt?" I nodded.

"Seems that way, must have put a crimp in their plans, you can't just walk in and set up a new distribution ring from scratch in a hurry"

Sharon paused, her fork half way to her mouth, as she thought hard. I let her think; it usually meant something good was happening. After a moment she put the fork back down and took a small sip of wine. She was silent for about 30 seconds before coming back to me.

"Ok, down in Mexico, they have a saying, 'plata o plomo'; it means silver or lead. Take a bribe or be killed. It's what they offer to people who are useful, but not too useful. Like a police officer or a bureaucrat of a low level thug. I bet that's what happened here" I frowned, not following her. Seeing my confusion Sharon explained.

"You said it yourself; it's difficult to put together a new distribution system from scratch, so why bother? You kill off the senior people of your rival's distributor and then set it up for someone who you've corrupted to take over" I saw where she was coming from now.

"They got to Little Dog, made him an offer he didn't dare refuse, then killed off everyone above him, so he takes over and starts distributing Los Zeta's product" Sharon smiled.

"Exactly, he's still high enough up in the Catorcies to be able to know who the distribution contacts are, but low enough that he wasn't really going to be a likely choice to take over. Now, they've corrupted him, he sold out his friends and he walks into the job" She leaned back away from the table, meal forgotten for a moment.

"He's acting the tough guy because he knows they won't come after him. Like you said, he's not in hiding, which would be the smartest thing to do if someone was trying to kill him, normally in this sort of situation he'd disappear down a rat hole, trying to stay alive" I smiled.

"He knows he's safe, because Los Zeta's need him to be their man on the ground"

"Plus he gets to act the brave leader in front of the rest of the Catorcies, who must be feeling very nervous about now; they'll rally around someone who's making a stand and looks like they know what to do" I grinned widely, excited at the possibilities.

"That makes sense, it's brilliant. You Sharon Raydor, are brilliant!" She grinned at me.

"I know, but I try not to boast too much" I snickered.

"Modest too" She nodded her head in mocking acceptance.

"So do you pull Little Dog in?" I thought that over, as Sharon went back to her chicken.

"Probably not yet, it's all circumstantial. Brilliant, but circumstantial, I'll need something more to hook him on" Sharon nodded slowly.

"So…"

"I'll get surveillance on Little Dog, if he's being that brazen, it shouldn't be too hard, see who he's talking to, he has to be talking to the Zetas somehow" I thought about it for a moment, as Sharon watched.

"I bet the Catorcies rivals aren't standing still. They must be looking at the Catorcies and thinking they're weak, they can be pushed out" Sharon looked pensive.

"They don't know who's now backing Little Dog, he can probably get the Zeta's to hit them, which not only protects the cartels investment, but weakens a rival"

We sat there for a few mouthfuls of food, both thinking it through.

If the Zeta's were planning additional attacks into California, we needed to shut them down. Based on their past history their attacks would get bigger, messier and involve lots of civilian casualties.

"We'll need a court order for a bunch of wiretap's and intercepts, but we should have enough to take to a judge" Sharon nodded.

"Try and get Judge Rosenberg if you can, he's pretty good for signing off on the warrants"

"Thanks, I will"

We kicked the case around for a few more minutes, before turning to her cases. Fortunately the only cases she had open were pretty open and shut. A domestic had turned nasty, with the husband, drunk, taking shots at the uniforms when they arrived. They'd shot back and hit him in the leg and shoulder.

The other was an addict off his face on PCP, he'd shrugged off batons and repeated taser shots, eventually an officer had put a shot through the perp's knee; he might think he was god when high, but he wasn't walking with a shattered kneecap.

Eventually the conversation turned to the sniper case.

"So how's that going?"

Not too well, we haven't found anything to link the victim's together, plus the shooter's very careful" She looked the question over the last of her wine.

"Each time we eventually find where the shot was taken, there's no physical evidence, no shell casing, no fingerprints, nothing. The shooters even been careful enough to sweep the scene clear of footprints, so we don't have anything"

"Something will turn up, it eventually does" I sighed.

"I know Sharon, but it's hard, knowing that every Tuesday morning a pretty young woman's going to be dead, in a particularly horrible way"

"I understand; I had a bad case way back before I joined FID, a rapist who struck every Saturday evening. Turns out that his wife had walked out on him to escape his drunken abuse on a Saturday night, so he saw it as getting even with her, by taking it out on others" I shook my head.

"Lovely, reaffirms my faith in men"

"It's ok Brenda, they're not all like that, you'll find someone, it's just a matter of time" I laughed, taking the sting out of my words.

"Dating advice from Sharon Raydor, who'd have thought it; and when was the last time you got some sweetie?" She snickered.

"I think it was sometime around the LA riots, or was it earlier? Hmm, I can't seem to remember that far back honey" She drawled out the 'honey', making fun of it.

"Might have been the last big earthquake" I tried to put on a deep masculine voice. "Did the earth move for you too sweetie?" She smiled.

"No, is it supposed too? I thought it was all the wine I'd had?" We sat there, smiling fondly at each other.

God I was glad I had a friend like Sharon, it made the job, the petty annoyances like Taylor, my crappy life here, a lot easier to take. I hoped that I was able to help her the way she helped me, but couldn't ask that question. Not without a lot more wine on board.

"Hey Brenda, sooner or later, they'll make a mistake, they always do, eventually" I sighed.

"I know Sharon; it's just the helplessness that gets to me. Next Tuesday morning I'll be looking at another dead woman, probably with no more clues than we have now"

"And you have nothing on military trained snipers who might be taking the shot?"

"Nope, nothing that's turned up so far, why?" She pursed her lips, looking down at the table.

"You may want to have a look at the LAPD and the various county sheriff's department's, their snipers are pretty good. For that matter the FBI has some really good ones too" I thought that one over for a moment.

"Good point, I'd missed that possibility. God, I hope you're wrong, but given what you have to deal with, maybe you're not"

Looking at my watch I realised that we'd been sitting here for the better part of two hours.

"We'd best be heading back, before Pope has kittens wondering what we're planning"

"Tell him we're planning to take over his job" I snickered.

"We'd need a crowbar to get him out of that seat, it'd be over his dead body" She laughed as we paid the bill.

"That can be arranged. You kill him, Maura hides the evidence, my investigation clears you, you pin the rap on Taylor and voila, LA's first female Chief of Police" I grinned at her.

"This is sounding better and better sweetie, what do you want in return for your help?"

"Assistant Chief's job"

"Sound's good to me, as long as you do all the paperwork"

"Hmm, you'll have to sweeten the deal"

"How about you get to torture Taylor daily for entertainment?"

"Done"


	20. Chapter 20

**The dinner party prelude at Maura and Jane's**

Anastasia's viewpoint

I smiled as Maura opened the door on the very nice, upscale house in a nice part of Westwood they were renting.

"Hi Maura, I'm not too early am I?" Maura smiled warmly, reminding me once again exactly how lucky Jane was. The green blouse and cream linen pants did the same job, especially given how well they highlighted her frankly, quite spectacular figure.

"Of course not, please come on in". Maura stepped aside and swung the door wide, allowing me to step in and get a good look at the house, which was stylishly furnished.

"Nice place you have here Maura, I like the wooden floors" Maura smiled again

"We were fortunate to be able to rent this house. It had just come on the market, I inspected it and made an offer then and there and was lucky enough to be accepted immediately. I suppose the owner was happy to see a doctor and a police officer moving in. The agent told me that they were worried some Hollywood type would rent it and have wild parties".

Looking around the house I thought the rent must cost most of my salary. It tied in with the Mercedes SLK convertible with Massachusetts plates in the driveway, someone, probably Maura, wasn't short of money.

"Could you leave your shoes by the door please. Heels are quite noisy and aren't particularly good on the wood"

We padded on bare feet through into a large open plan kitchen and living area, where Jane was lounging up against the island bench in jeans and T-shirt. She turned an easy smile at us both.

"Hey Ana, you want wine, beer or something else?"

"Beer is fine thanks" Jane wandered over to the fridge and extracted a bottle, popping the cap before handing it over and then, after a moment's hesitation, reached under the bench for a glass which she passed over as well.

I noticed a look passed between Maura and Jane, with the corner of Maura's mouth quirking up slightly, as if she was holding in a smile. It was at that point I noticed that Jane was drinking her beer straight from the bottle. Hazarding a guess as to what had just played out in front of me, I took pity on Jane.

"Thanks Jane, but I might drink straight from the bottle like you do, I know it's silly but it tastes better that way" Jane broke into a huge grin, while she slyly glanced at Maura from the corner of her eye.

Maura threw Jane a resigned look, yet another in a very long series I guess, tempered with a quiet smile, a look I recognised. Natalie and I passed it back and forward several times a day.

Maura picked up her glass of wine and led us over to a set of low and comfortable sofas.

We talked shop for a while, waiting for Natalie to arrive. She had been held up with a gang-related drive-by shooting but had rung to say she was due soon. Waiting for a lull in the conversation, I jumped in when one appeared.

"There is one thing I should mention before Natalie gets here" Maura looked concerned.

"Oh, does she have any food allergies? I should have checked first, I'm sorry. There should be nothing in tonight's meal which would trigger any of the more common allergic reactions, like peanuts, shellfish or soy, although there are some less common ones that I should have asked about…" I held up my hand as I broke in on her apology.

"Whoa Maura hold up, it's nothing like that, neither of us have any allergies that I'm aware of, I'm sure that dinner will be wonderful. Besides, Jane was bragging about what a great cook you are yesterday" Maura actually blushed slightly.

"Well, I do like to avoid poisoning my guests; it would be bad for my reputation as a host" Jane smirked as she turned to look at Maura where they sat close on the couch.

"Besides, people might think you were trying to create work for yourself" She smiled at me. "At least there's nothing coming out of the dead fridge tonight" Maura gave Jane a playful smack in return.

"I have more than enough work thank you Jane, without looking for more, especially with friends"

"The dead fridge?" I asked, curious. Jane shook her head.

"You don't wanna know, trust me"

"Oh, OK, well anyway, about Natalie…"

"Yes?"

It's just that you've probably noticed that Nat's a very touchy-feely kind of person at the best of times". Jane lifted an eyebrow at me, an expression I had once heard called 'The Spock', but could just as easily have been called 'The Jane', she did it so well.

"Yeah, I'd noticed, so?"

"Well, when she's happy and likes the people she's with she gets more so, plus she tends to get a little flirty. I just wanted to warn you in case it might make you a little uncomfortable" Maura smiled back at her.

"Oh it shouldn't, Jane and I have been told we are very tactile as well" Maura smiled as she looked down to where Jane's hand rested on her thigh and laid her own on top of it.

"I'm just pleased that she will be happy to be here with us" Maura turned and looked at Jane, who nodded.

"Thanks guys, I love her to death, but I just wanted to warn you so that it didn't get awkward" Jane leaned forward.

"When you said she gets flirty, how much so?"

'Teasing mostly, nothing serious, it's not a power or guilt thing either, she's not trying to make me jealous and react; more a playful thing with people she likes" I took a breath.

"Some people have taken it the wrong way, or get embarrassed that my girl is flirting with someone else" Maura nodded.

"Well, we promise not to take it the wrong way, as it's all in good fun" I felt a smile break out on my face as relief flowed through me. I hadn't really been worried but it was good to be sure.

"Thanks, both of you, we like you a lot and I didn't want to have anything happening without a chance to warn you first" Jane waved my thanks away.

"No, like Maura said, we're good" Maura nodded in agreement.

"You and Natalie have both been very kind to us since we arrived, we didn't really know anyone here and it's good to have friends. We're both glad you're here and that you reached out to us"

"Well, we both know that it's not easy, a new job, a new city, especially when it's new for both of you. It's been the same for Nat and I; you can never have enough friends"

"It's all new to us and we only had a small circle of family and friends back in Boston. Well, mostly Jane's family, although they made me part of their family long before we got together" Maura smiled a bit sadly.

"Family is one thing I do miss out here. Jane's mother makes the most divine Italian food, I still get the occasional cravings for her gnocchi" Jane squeezed Maura's thigh, getting a gentle slap on the wrist in return.

"Don't you dare tell her that Maura, she'll be on the next plane out here" Jane looked over at me.

"My mother is the overbearing Italian mother from central casting, while I miss her lots, I don't miss her barging into our place at all hours and seeing things a mother shouldn't see her daughter doing, especially on an island bench top". She shook her head at the memories, while Maura favoured her with a small smile, no doubt remembering that occasion as well.

I winced in sympathy, thinking about a few incidents in our past when Nat and I hadn't been as discreet as we should have been.

"Point taken, not long after Nat and I first got serious, her then roomie walked in to find us going at it full bore on the rug in front of the fireplace. I wasn't sure which of us was going to die of embarrassment first. She moved out not long after and I moved in"

Maura leaned into Jane and smiled.

"Unfortunately, Angela Rizzoli is as curious as her daughter and a lot less hung up on sex than Jane"

"Excuse me?" Jane leaned back from Maura and tried to look appalled.

"Well you were at first. At least until we worked some of the kinks out" Jane looked fondly at Maura, a goofy grin appearing.

"Funny, I seem to recall it was you who worked some kinks in, not out. Not that I'm complaining mind" Maura actually blushed, at which Jane let out a loud laugh, which didn't help Maura's composure

"I don't think Anastasia needs to hear about that thank you Jane"

I couldn't resist teasing Maura, who looked adorable as she blushed.

"Why not, after all were all friends here? No secrets between friends" Jane just smiled broadly, leaving Maura to blush even deeper.

"I don't think we're quite that friendly Anastasia" I couldn't help myself, as I burst out laughing, getting a wink from Jane in return.

Just then the doorbell rang, saving any further embarrassment. Maura jumped up suspiciously fast and headed for the front door.

She returned shortly after with Natalie in train, in bare feet but still wearing her work suit.

I got up to kiss her, she looked a little tired but I got a warm kiss and a murmured '_love you'_ as we moved back to the sofas. Undoing her jacket, she laid it over the back of a chair before sitting down.

"Would you like something to drink Natalie?" Maura was already heading to the kitchen as we settled down.

"A wine would be lovely Maura, white if you have some please" She curled up on the sofa, tucking her legs under her while looking graceful as she did. I reached out and placed an arm around her shoulder while she leaned into me.

"Bad?" Nat looked over to Jane and nodded.

"Drive by, three gangers hosed down on a busy street in front of young kids playing. No one saw anything of course. Thanks Maura" She smiled up as a wine appeared in front of her.

I said all the right things about asking for the community's help, witnesses to come forward and so on, but frankly, I felt I was wasting my time" I frowned; this was a bit flat for Natalie.

"You never know, someone may come forward, it's just a bit early to tell"

"I know, I just watched as the uniformed officers pointed out that the bullets sprayed straight out only a few inches over the heads of a couple of ten year old kids" Jane grimaced, obviously she had seen that before.

"If they had hit the kids we would all be down there now, definitely a Major Crimes case then" Maura handed Nat a wine glass and she took a sip of it.

"Mmm, this is lovely wine Maura, thank you" I watched Maura perch on the arm of the lounge next to Jane, who slipped an arm around her waist. Tactile wasn't the word; they were joined at the hip. A feeling I could easily relate to, especially as Natalie leaned back against me and entwined our fingers.

"You're most welcome Natalie. They have some wonderful wineries here in California; producing white's easily the equal of anything from France."

"I like a good white, I wouldn't mind finding out the name of this one". Maura smiled.

"Of course" Just then my stomach rumbled, quite audibly. Natalie looked at me, eyes wide open.

"I heard that" Jane laughed from the other sofa.

"So did I" Embarrassed I shrugged, trying to casually pass it off.

"I was tied up in a meeting with the Bureau for most of lunch time; I had coffee and some crackers" I could feel a scolding coming on.

"Anastasia, what have I told you about eating regular meals. You promised me you would eat regularly, no matter what" Nat frowned slightly. "I don't want you getting sick again"

"I normally do, today was an exception. I'm sorry" I leaned over to kiss her cheek, trying to close the subject, but her expression suggested that I wasn't successful.

"You're health's more important than some meeting. Surely the FBI can afford sandwiches if they make you work through lunch in some stuffy conference room"

"Natalie's right Ana, while breakfast is the most important meal of the day, by the middle of the day your body's energy supplies are becoming depleted, leaving you tired, sluggish and irritable. It also makes it harder to concentrate, your attention to detail and ability to make cognitive leaps and undertake complex problem solving decline, in addition to having a deleterious effect on your overall health and well-being if you have a pattern of skipping meals. In fact a recent study by researchers at the Sorbonne suggests that…" I looked over at Maura as she suddenly stopped, seeing Jane squeezing Maura's waist.

"Maura, your Googling again and all Ana wants is some food. Plus I do too and I did eat lunch today, as you well know, seeing as it was with you" Maura smiled an apology at me and got up, walking over to the kitchen as I shot a grateful glance at Jane for getting me off the hook..

"Dinner's almost ready; hope you like Coq au Vin, its chicken in red wine sauce"

"It sounds wonderful, lead on"


	21. Chapter 21

**The dinner party**

Jane's viewpoint

Dinner went very well, with our guests praising Maura's cooking; I wasn't going to argue, it was one of our favourite meals and had a long history between us.

Maura had served Coq au Vin on the first night that I had been invited over for dinner, years ago; I loved it then and still did.

We sat around the table, gossiping about our colleagues and talking shop until I suggested coffee. While Ana, Natalie and Maura carried the dishes to the dishwasher, I got out the coffee plunger and her favourite Blue Mountain blend and boiled the water while their conversation filled the kitchen.

I was surprised at how easily the evening had, gone, with Maura and Natalie getting on like old friends, while I could feel something like a kindred spirit in Anastasia.

As I busied myself with the coffee I found myself wondering why we were so open with them when we hadn't known them for very long, barely three weeks. I'm usually a lot more reserved around strangers and Maura's normally the same.

Was it because they were like us, a couple? Not that I thought of myself as a lesbian, Maura and I just connected, it wasn't a case of our genders, just that we were meant for each other. Once we got past the 'what will people think stage' it was more about exploring our way from then on. I wasn't interested in sleeping with other women, so I didn't really think that label fitted, there was no 'lesbian solidarity' thing happening here either.

I didn't think it was the fact that we all worked in the same environment either. I'd worked with other female police officers at one stage or another and hadn't really thought about them that way either.

Maybe it was the fact that they didn't seem to care what we were, they just accepted us for who we were. I considered the thought as I slowly pushed the plunger down.

I looked up to ask how Natalie and Anastasia took their coffees, to see a very piercing set of grey eyes watching me from the other side of the bench.

"Weird isn't it?" I blinked.

"What?" She nodded to where the girls were back curled up on the sofa chatting.

"They're behaving like besties, which is pretty normal for Natalie, but I don't think Maura's normally that open" I looked at her quizzically.

"No, not usually. Do you read minds for a living Agent Romanov?" She snickered.

"Well I am part of the evil government conspiracy, big brother and all" Seeing I was serious, she sobered.

"They're hitting it off wonderfully, which I am ecstatic about. I can understand Maura being drawn to Nat, most people are. She's not just nice to look at, but she's fun and happy and playful and can worm her way past most people's defences" She looked over to where they were sitting and then looked back.

"When we moved here I knew that we would know no one and have to start from scratch. I can deal with that, have done before, but Nat's a people person, always has been. I was afraid that she would have a difficult time adjusting. Seeing Maura and Nat like this, well it's great, she's been looking forward to tonight ever since Maura's invite" I nodded.

"I feel the same way, Maura's been looking forward to it as well, and I'm happy that she's happy, but that doesn't explain…"

"…you and I?" Ana interrupted; I raised an eyebrow and then nodded slowly.

"You do read minds. Yeah; I'm normally the reserved one, the stand back and take my time one. This is really out of character for me"

"Me too, Nat's normally the one telling me to open up, accept people, let people in" She shrugged. "Damned if I know"

"I not sure either, maybe it's the whole upheaval thing. A new job, new city, new people, this is my first time living out of Boston, now I'm on the far side of the country and out of my comfort zone" She nodded slowly.

"I hear that, I got here using my phone's GPS. I'm used to knowing the way around a city like the back of my hand; here I'm still learning the best way to get to work" I looked at her with a rueful expression.

"You too huh? I knew every street in Boston, right down to the house numbers in some cases. Here I keep getting mixed up; the other day I had to find Mulholland Drive and ended up five suburbs in the wrong direction" She laughed.

"Nice to know it's not just me" I realised that the coffee was still sitting in the plunger, waiting.

"How do you and Natalie take your coffee?"

"Strong and black for me, medium white with one sugar for Nat" She paused to watch me pour.

"I don't know. I feel comfortable with you both. Maura's lovely, you're tolerable when you get past the whole 'I'm a bad ass' thing" She smiled to take any sting out of the words. "And Nat really likes you both. She's usually a good judge of character, if a bit impulsive"

I poured her cup of coffee and pushed it across the bench.

"As long as you don't expect to start sleepovers and braiding each other's hair; I didn't do that when I was a kid and don't intend to start now" I smirked at her, and she matched my expression.

"I didn't either; my dad was a soldier so I grew up on army bases, a real army brat" I grinned.

"You right about the brat part, I don't know how Natalie puts up with you" She smiled.

"I'm handy to have around the house, I'm even house broken"

"What's that about being house broken" We turned to see Natalie and Maura walking over, reminding me to finish pouring the coffees.

"Hey Baby, Ana was just explaining why Natalie keeps her around. Apparently she's handy to have around the house" Maura rolled her eyes at me, before turning to Natalie.

"You'll have to excuse Jane; she's still learning the art of being tactful" Natalie smiled.

"That's ok, I'm sure she has a few redeeming qualities, otherwise you would have kicked her out ages ago" Maura nodded slowly.

"Yes, she does come in handy from time to time. You know, take out the trash, fix the plumbing, all that 'guy stuff', she's good at it" Ok, so that was how it was going to be. I sighed theatrically as I pushed their coffees towards them.

"Well, you were the one jumping up on a chair the last time you saw a mouse" I winked at Ana. "I had to do something; all that screaming might give the neighbours the wrong impression about us" Natalie laughed.

"Yes, we couldn't' have the neighbours thinking Maura was screaming. They might get jealous" Ana sniggered.

"Well you obviously have hidden charms Jane. Very deeply hidden" I shook my head.

"What's this, kick Rizzoli night?" Ana smirked, obviously enjoying the banter.

"Why should tonight be any different? Hell it's usually pick on me night most nights at our place" Maura smiled.

"You must have done something to deserve it Anastasia, I'm sure that Natalie wouldn't pick on you without due cause" Ana responded with mock outrage.

"Hey, you're supposed to be on my side Maura" She smiled back and shook her head.

"No, I'm on Natalie's side" Ana looked to the heavens.

"Typical, the pretty ones ganging up on me. What can I do?" Natalie wandered over to Ana and leaned in for a quick kiss.

"I'm sure I can think of something. I might let you back into my good books if you're properly apologetic" Ana shook her head.

"Sorry Blondie, you can sleep on the couch before I apologise, I've done nothing wrong"

Natalie stepped back, placing her hand on her chest in mock shock.

"What about using all the hot water in the shower this morning? Plus you stole all the covers last night, not to mention you used the last of the milk this morning. I'd say you have a lot to apologise for" I chuckled; I'd heard this song before. I rolled my eyes at Maura, who grinned back at me. Ana was unfazed.

"Suck it up Blondie, I know you're powerless to resist my manly, er… womanly charms"

"Doesn't mean I can't trade up" She looked over to me. "Jane, you got room in your harem for one more?" I felt my jaw drop open.

"Uh, well…" Good one Rizzoli, I heard Maura snigger at the expression I was sure I was wearing. Natalie strolled over to me.

"I could make it worth your while, after all I know you've got a soft spot for hot blondes"

"Um, Natalie…" Damn, I haven't been this tongue tied in years. Ana was grinning at Natalie.

"Fat chance Nat, she's took" Natalie pouted prettily, then leaned into me, wrapping one arm around my waist. I felt myself freeze, what the hell…

"Come on Jane, you can see what a nasty person I'm stuck with" She cooed. "I'd be very, very grateful, I'm sure Maura wouldn't mind sharing…" I heard Maura chuckle, at which my head swivelled to stare at her.

I was acutely conscious of how warm and curvy her body was and how it was pressed up against my right side, her arm was around my waist and I could smell her perfume, feel her breast pressed against my side. I swallowed nervously, wondering what Maura was thinking. In fact looking over at her she was obviously very amused by what was happening.

"Well Jane, the ball's in your court" I stared at Maura, what had she just said? Ana chuckled at my obvious discomfort, as I remembered her warning that Natalie liked to flirt.

"Sorry Natalie, but you haven't got a hope in hell" Natalie turned to look at Anastasia.

"Why? I can be very persuasive" Her arm tightened around my waist as she leaned her head on my shoulder. "I'm sure I could convince Jane to see it my way"

"Blondie, there is no way Jane would be interested in you, no matter what you did, for one simple reason" I looked across at her and somehow managed to speak in something resembling a normal voice.

"And what might that be?"

"Simple, Maura can cook like Giada _De Laurentiis and is even prettier. Nat on the other hand, can barely boil water". Natalie rolled her eyes as I took the out offered._

_"Sorry Natalie, but she has a point. You know us Italians, we love our food" She stepped back from me and looked appalled._

_"Jane Rizzoli, you'd dump me for Coq au Vin?" I shrugged, relaxing now that Natalie wasn't snuggled up into me._

_"Well, I have to say Maura makes a compelling case, as well as a compelling meal" I heard Ana's sudden bark of laughter._

"Yes, I'm sure Maura's good enough to eat" I saw Natalie start giggling and I turned to see Maura desperately trying to hold in her laughter and failing. What I'd said suddenly hit me and my face burned, I was sure I was flaming red with embarrassment. Of course Nat couldn't let me escape that easily.

"I've heard of making a meal of something but…really Jane?"

"Maura…" I paused, wondering what the hell to say. If anything, she laughed even harder. Nat's voice, gently teasing, interrupted.

"I think that's called a Freudian slip there Jane" Ana couldn't let me just die of acute embarrassment either, as she stuck another knife in.

"Freud would have had a few things to say about that statement I'm sure Jane. It's probably a sign of sexual frustration" I looked at Maura; she was convulsed in silent laughter. Oh great, no help there. Perhaps the best defence was a good offence.

"You sure you're not projecting your own problems there Ana? Hell, if you can't look after Nat, perhaps we should take her under our wing, take proper care of her"

"Good luck there Jane, at least I'd get a decent night's sleep for a change" That did it. Natalie turned to Ana.

"Why Ana, I didn't hear any complaints last night. As I recall you were quite vocal in your approval" She paused, an appraising look on her face. "Mind you, I could be wrong. You were moaning quite a bit towards the end. Quite loudly actually as I remember"

At this point Maura was desperately wiping her eyes, as tears ran down her face and her sides shook. She tried to speak, but nothing came out. I started to laugh, partly at her, partly at the absurdity of the situation. Natalie turned back to me.

"I'm sure you don't complain too much Jane. You're not a moaner are you?" I froze. Oh god, what do I say now? Ana saved me the trouble.

"Nah, I reckon Jane's a screamer, after all Maura's a doctor, they're good with their hands and know all about anatomy" My head swivelled to face her.

"I can't believe we're having this conversation in our kitchen"

"Oh, would somewhere else be more appropriate" Natalie's voice had that 'butter wouldn't melt in her mouth' tone.

"No, it wouldn't be more appropriate, in fact I don't think we should be having this conversation at all" Maura finally managed to get enough air to speak.

"But Jane, you've often told me that I'm good with my hands" She looked oh so very innocent and adorable all at once as she held them up and flexed her fingers. "Very good as I recall" I felt my jaw drop.

"Maura!"

"Yes Jane? Was I wrong, I don't recall you complaining before about my technique. Is there an area I should brush up on" Oh my God, I was horrified, I felt like shrivelling up from embarrassment. Natalie of course had to jump in.

"Really Maura, perhaps you can give me some tips" She walked over to Maura and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "I'd really like to make Ana moan and groan"

Maura looked at me, then Ana, a happy smile on her face.

"Well, there's this particular trick you do with your fingers that Jane likes…"

"NO! Maura, not another word or so help me, I'll… I'll" I'll what? Good one Rizzoli. Maura just turned to look at me, her face a complete mask of innocence.

"But Jane, I was just about to discuss specific techniques to ensure that Natalie and Anastasia achieve a mutually satisfactory result" She fluttered her lashes at me.

"You always tell me I'm good with my fingers, especially when I thrust them deeply into your Supraspinatus. I'm sure Natalie would appreciate improving her technique, as would Anastasia" Natalie grinned at me.

"If it makes you groan Jane, I'm sure it will do wonders for Ana here" Oh God, take me now, before I die of embarrassment.

"Besides, you know how me doing it to you relieves stress, you keep telling me you feel like jelly afterwards"

"Maura, we can't have this conversation here, in public" I felt my face burning.

It was at that point that the penny dropped, I realised that Ana was desperately trying to smother a laugh and looking at Maura I could see the ends of her mouth twitching as she tried not to laugh out loud. Finally Natalie spoke, a huge grin breaking out.

"I only wanted to improve my massage technique and Maura apparently trained in both Deep Tissue and Shiatsu techniques"

"Massage… Oh…" Ana's laughter couldn't be contained anymore, as Maura's grin broke through, telling me I had been royally had.

Natalie walked over to me and leaned in to kiss me chastely on the cheek, smiling hugely.

"I'm sorry Jane, it's my fault, but when Maura suggested we tease you, I couldn't resist"

I turned to look at Maura, my jaw dropping open.

"Maura?" She stepped over and snuggled into me, wrapping her arms tightly around me.

"I'm sorry darling, we were just having some fun. I'm sorry if I hurt you" I looked down at her, hearing the contriteness in her voice. I just couldn't be mad at her, even if everyone had just had a good laugh at my expense.

"Nah, its ok baby, no harm done" She looked up at me with those puppy dog eyes and I knew I couldn't be angry with her, even if I wanted to be.

"So how long had you planned that little gag?" Natalie giggled.

"While you were making coffee; Maura told me that you're easily embarrassed when talking about sex in public, so we decided to play a game with you" She paused. "I hope we haven't upset you?" I sighed.

"If that's something you can come up with on the spur of the moment, I don't want to think about what you two might do if you put some planning and preparation into it. But I think it's Ana's turn next" Anastasia's head swivelled to me.

"Me?" I smiled at her tone.

"Yep, share and share alike, I've had my turn, it's your turn next" She looked worried.

"Thanks for nothing Jane"


	22. Chapter 22

**The fourth sniper attack**

Maura's viewpoint

Another Tuesday morning, another Major Crimes call out, another murdered young woman. I may not be the best person in large social settings but even I could tell everyone in Major Crimes was feeling the strain.

Jane had mentioned that people had been not themselves yesterday afternoon, with the goodbyes as people left work last night tinged with both unhappy anticipation and regretful bitterness.

This morning I'd noticed the tenseness of the squad as they worked at the scene, with its all too familiar aftermath. The Major Crimes squad had worked together as a cohesive unit for many years, normally able to take most things in their stride, such as the warehouse attack, but responding to the same senseless crime each week, with its inevitable result, was wearing at everyone.

The normal banter and chat was either non-existent or where it did happen, was restrained. Mind you, this time the attack had one difference, there had been a survivor.

Unfortunately the survivor was not Shannelle Henning, an attractive young woman, apparently a dancer, who had been killed at her breakfast table. Instead it was her boyfriend, who had been sitting across the table from Ms Henning when the sniper struck.

The bullet had passed though Ms Henning's throat from rear to front, in effect decapitating her. The only consolation, small that it was, was that death from the hydrostatic shock passing up through the spinal column into the brain would have been almost instantaneous, she would not have suffered.

Exiting the victim's body, the projectile had continued on, barely slowed, before passing through the lower left arm of Julian O'Day. The impact had almost amputated his forearm and I doubted that even emergency microsurgery could save it; he'd been able to staunch the bleeding long enough to dial 911 and call for help.

I looked around the crime site, seeing the hole in the wall where the bullet had passed through the bricks wall and into the corridor; it was currently being retrieved from the concrete floor where it had come to rest.

The trajectory indicated a downwards shot, fortunately the firing location was patently obvious, a hilltop some distance away was the only vantage point that looked down into the apartment.

Chief Johnson had immediately despatched Lieutenant's Provenza and Flynn to search the site for clues, while the rest of the Major Crimes team processed the site.

The squad was extremely skilled and very careful in working around the victim's body, being taking care not to disturb anything important, for which I was extremely grateful.

Not every homicide team I'd worked with had been as skilled as Major Crimes; however I could see Chief Johnson's influence in their meticulous skill and the care they took. I noticed the Chief standing nearby, overseeing their work and taking it all in.

Chief Johnson was by all reports a lovely caring person and this case was hitting her hard. I could see it in the tension in her face, the frustration evident in little ways, despite her attempts to stay positive in the face of another senseless death.

Despite everything, she still looked her usual lovely self, wearing a teal skirt and knitted top over a white blouse and a set of brown high heeled sling backs. Her hair was pulled back into a bun, which I thought was a mistake, she had lovely hair and it looked best cascading down over her shoulders, rather than the severe bun she had chosen today.

Jane scoffs at my theory, but I believe that Chief Johnson dresses the way she does to reinforce her authority over the officers surrounding her, emphasising her professionalism but retaining her feminine appearance, using her attractiveness to reinforce her 'command presence' on her subordinates. It's a trait I have seen, even more so, in the style used by Commander Sharon Raydor, the striking Force Investigations Division chief.

Jane's theory is a little less convoluted. She thinks both of them like to dress well and can afford to, as they don't have to chase criminals in heels and skirts, having people like her to do that for them.

I have pointed out in return that Chief Johnson has been in the forefront of dangerous situations several times in recent years, including having to shoot and be shot at, so she could hardly be called 'uninvolved'. Needless to say Jane still demurs and we've agreed to disagree on this matter.

Standing back up, I turn to the Chief and finish my report, even though we both know it's only a formality.

"Cause of death is quite patently obvious Chief; I'll have the body removed and forward an autopsy report later today. I take it you are unlikely to wish to view the autopsy?" She smiled politely.

"Thank you Maura and thank you for the offer, but as you say, cause of death is obvious, so I think I might pass"

"As you wish Chief" I nodded politely and stepped out the door to speak to the other members of my team, directing them in to collect the victim.

Once they passed me I noticed Natalie standing nearby, she saw me and smiled.

"Hiya Maura, how are you?"

"Well thanks Natalie and you?"

"Be better once we catch whoevers doing this, every Tuesday morning, regular as clockwork. I hate it" I nodded.

"I completely understand. The expectation of what we will find on Tuesday morning's is affecting Jane and I as well" She turned to me with a concerned look.

"How so, are you ok?" I smiled at her.

"We're fine, it's just that we find ourselves going to bed early, expecting to be woken early" She nodded.

"Same here, I was in bed curled up to Ana by 10 so I could get a decent sleep before the call"

"I did the same; Jane and I were in bed by 10.30 and asleep not long after. In fact I set the alarm for 4.30, got up and got dressed, as I expected to be called earlier than in fact we were"

"Must be hard with both of you having to roll out for the call" I tilted my head, thinking about it.

"Yes and no, on one hand it means we both have to be up and attend, on the other; it means we have someone there for support, which I find myself grateful for. This case is wearing at me more than I anticipated"

Looking concerned, Natalie took my arm and drew me down the corridor away from the door, before opening the door to the fire escape stairs and gently guiding me in, away from the curious looks for the assembled uniformed officers.

"Are you ok Maura, is there anything I can do?"

"It's just I feel so very helpless Natalie, someone out there is killing these young women with impunity and there's nothing I can do, nothing I can find to help bring it to a stop" I shrugged. "I'm not used to feeling this superfluous to an investigation, completely unable to help"

Natalie just looked at me with compassion overflowing in her beautiful blue eyes, before stepping in and wrapping me in a warm hug. It felt very different from Jane's, Natalie's body was different, plus this was a friend's hug, not a lover's, but for a few indulgent seconds I just luxuriated in the feeling of company and comfort as much as her murmured words of support, wrapping my arms around her and squeezing back. Finally I stepped back.

"Thank you Natalie, I appreciate it" She smiled.

"It's ok Maura, I needed it too to be honest" I looked up at her, why did she need it? She saw the look on my face.

"I have to wander downstairs shortly and face the media, with nothing new to tell them it's starting to get ugly. They want news and all I have to give them are platitudes. I'm expecting the 'incompetent LAPD stories to start soon"

"But surely that's not your fault" Her mouth quirked.

"That's not what the LAPD pays me for Maura, plus this is my first big case since we moved here and a lot of people are watching, plus Taylor's waiting for another chance to attack me" She sighed. "Ah well, we have to play the hands we're dealt"

"Indeed, although it depends on the game you're playing, can you not change the rules?" She looked at me with a calculating look. After a few seconds I felt the need to clarify my statement. "Jane likes to play poker. It might be Five Card Stud, Texas Hold 'em or Five Card Draw, each is poker but a change in rules changes the way their played"

"I didn't know you guys played? Ana and I used to play back in Seattle, we'll have to organise a night for a game" She paused for a moment. "Change the rules. I like that. I might suggest doing something different this time to the Chief" I smiled at her, hopeful that my off the cuff suggestion had helped.

"By the way Maura, thanks for having us over for dinner, it was great, we both had a fantastic time" My smile widened.

"I enjoyed it as well, as did Jane. It was fun"

"Oh, so she's forgiven us for teasing her?" I felt my cheeks colour, which didn't go unnoticed by Natalie. "Yes…?"

"Jane exacted her revenge on me later that evening, after you had left" Natalie looked intrigued, stepping in and dropping her voice.

"And…?" I paused for a moment, before dropping my voice as well, although there was little chance of being overheard through the fire door.

"Jane proceeded to torture me for over three hours after you left, she brought me to the brink a dozen times, then stopped, each time leaving me… unfulfilled" I could feel the flush on my face as I recalled my pleading, my begging and my delirious entreaties for her to allow me to come.

"Maura, that's nasty, well hot really, but cruel too. I take it she eventually relented"

"Eventually, I collapsed and fell unconscious afterwards; I didn't wake up until the following morning. I have to say though, it was delicious as well" She looked at me with a delightfully shocked expression.

"Maura, you hedonist; you loved it though, I can tell" I tried to compose my face.

"It was a revenge suitably carried out. Jane told me if I happened again I'd be tortured twice as long next time" Natalie laughed.

"Someone should tell Jane threats are supposed to be intimidating, not something to be anticipated" I giggled, something about Natalie just made want to share things with her. I'd really only had one close female friend, Jane. With Natalie I felt like I had another.

"Does Jane do the handcuff thing to you? When Ana wants to torment me she handcuffs me to the bed and teases me for hours" I felt my cheeks redden again, remembering a few occasions when we had tried restraint play. Natalie's face lit up with delight. "Oh she does, I knew it! We have to swap stories one day, when they're not around. Anyway, we want to have you over for dinner sometime soon, return the favour"

"There's no favour to return, it was our pleasure, plus it was a wonderful diversion from the stress of our jobs" Natalie nodded.

"Yeah, we thought so to. In fact, we're going to invite the Chief over for dinner, I think she needs all the relief she can get, she's carrying a lot of pressure to solve this one, plus the warehouse case"

"Jane and I had talked about that as well. According to her squad, she is separated from her husband, Ana's predecessor, and isn't seeing anyone, so I'm sure she would appreciate the invite. In fact we should do the same in a few weeks"

"Yeah, we're thinking of inviting a few people to dinner in the next few weeks, all part of the getting to know you thing. Probably Chief Pope, I do report to him so it's sort of expected. Then there's Sharon Raydor, Ana thinks she's lovely and I agree; plus Ana's Bureau chief here"

I nodded, thinking we could probably do the same. Especially Chief Johnson, she'd been very welcoming to us both and as Natalie had observed, she was under a lot of strain. I made a note to mention it to Jane.

"I suppose we should wander back, before we are missed" She smiled.

"True. Look Maura, if there's anything I can do to help, or if you just need a friendly face or a hug, call me anytime, we can do lunch easily enough through the week as well" I smiled, warmed by her concern.

"Thanks Natalie, I appreciate it. The same goes for you as well" Natalie smiled as she opened the door back to the corridor.

We wandered back, to see the team wheeling poor Ms Henning's body out. Spotting Jane I walked up for a quick chat, before heading back to the lab. The autopsy may reveal nothing that we didn't already know, but she still deserved my best efforts to help find her killer.

I'm not a religious person, however I found myself saying a small prayer that we found the person responsible for her murder and those of the other three young women soon.

I didn't like feeling helpless like this; I was tired of mutilated young women ending up on my table, tired of knowing there was nothing I could do to stop it.

For the first time in a very long time, I found myself wishing this day was over, so I could just go home. There I could crawl into Jane's arms and forget about all of this in her loving embrace, safe from the horrible world out there.

Unfortunately, I knew this wouldn't be the last; my Tuesday mornings were going to be similarly horrible for some time to come.


	23. Chapter 23

**Rizzoli, Sanchez & Dearing**

Natalie's viewpoint

After seeing Maura off, I wandered back into the apartment to chat to Brenda. Thinking of what Maura had said about changing the rules had made me consider trying something different this time with the media.

Brenda was standing there, wrapping up with her squad when she saw me waiting. She looked, not tired, just worn down, another member of the team feeling the strain. Her southern upbringing wouldn't let her innate politeness slip though; dredging up a smile she turned to welcome me.

"Good morning to you Natalie"

"And the same to you Chief; wonder if I can have a moment of your time?"

"Course, what's up, our friends of the fourth estate downstairs?"

"That they are, I'd like to try something different with them, try and head off the bad PR coming our way"

"Go ahead" I took a breath, knowing this wouldn't go over too well.

"I'd like to bring a news crew to one of the previous victim's residences, show them the problem and highlight that the nature of the crime makes it difficult to wrap it up quickly" Brenda's hands dropped to her hips.

"You have got to be kidding me Natalie"

"Please, hear me out" She looked at me for a moment, before nodding.

"We would make sure that we told them nothing specific that might hinder the case, we point out what they already know, that there is a sniper out there, but we make the point that the nature of a sniper's attacks makes it difficult to prevent and difficult to catch them, but that we are working to close the case and that we're looking for the public's cooperation"

"Won't that just create a panic, another DC sniper fiasco" I shook my head.

"They already know about a sniper, someone in the department has a big mouth, or is feeding info to the media directly. Possibly a uniformed officer, a despatcher, a lab tech, I don't know. We wouldn't be telling them anything they don't know, but we can get out in front of the case, plus it might help in other ways?"

"Such as?" Brenda hadn't dismissed it out of hand, so I felt cautiously optimistic.

"Well, if women start closing their blinds and not wandering out on balconies then that makes it harder for the sniper to get to his targets, wouldn't you agree"

"There is that"

"So we make that point, while offering lots of reassurance that we are working on catching the sniper"

"You really think this'll stop the bad press?" I shook my head.

"No, it might keep it at bay for a few more days, a week at most, but it might bring in some info that helps"

"Well, even if I agree to this, I don't want any mention of the Barrett, let people think it's a normal rifle" I nodded.

"I also don't want any requests to interview family members, they've gone through enough, losing a loved one without having a mic shoved in their face and asked how they're feeling"

"I can't promise on that one, but I will try"

"I will not be givin' any interviews either. I don't like them, I'm not good at them at the best of times and this surely isn't the best of times" I nodded.

"Completely understand"

"When, if I agreed, which I haven't mind; would you want to do it?" I schooled my face to remain calm, even though I knew Brenda had basically agreed, she just had to convince herself of that.

"Tomorrow morning, probably around 11, decent light, plenty of time for the crews to make it back to the studios and put it together for the evening news. We'd arrange a pool system, one camera crew, one journalist, one photographer, keep it manageable"

"Will they agree to share the story?"

"If they want the story yes, otherwise they miss out" I shrugged. "I've done pooled stories before; you just have to play hard ball a bit. In this case we have what they want so we can call the shots" I felt a wave of shame rush through me as, embarrassed, I looked down.

"Sorry Brenda, bad analogy. My apologies"

"Understood. I'll have to talk to Chief Pope before we can go ahead, but we'll need to have agreed things to say" I nodded again, chancing a small smile.

"I can come and see you and work out what you want me to say, once Chief Pope agrees"

"I'll speak to him once we get back, ok?" I nodded and stepped back.

"Thanks Chief, I appreciate it" She nodded and turned back to talk to Sergeant Gabriel, who had been waiting patiently.

I smiled at him in thanks for his patience and turned away, leaving the apartment on the way down to front to the media.

As I walked out into the hall I noticed that Rizzoli and Sanchez were verbally sparring again. The sight reminded me of two pups at play, rough housing to establish dominance, although given the personalities involved that could be a long time coming. Curious, I wandered in their direction

"Detectives"

"Hi Natalie"

"Heya Nat"

"Tell me, are you two still trying to work out who's going to be the team alpha male?" Rizzoli grinned, nodding her head at Sanchez.

"He thinks he is, based on seniority and a Y chromosome" I heard Sanchez snort in response.

"I take it you don't agree Jane?" I smiled quietly, I could hear Ana's voice in my head saying pretty much the same thing; Jane was a lot like her.

"Nah, just because he's old and the wrong gender doesn't mean he's right"

"You know Rizzoli, someone's got to do the hard lifting, so you don't break your nails, or dirty your mascara" Sanchez smirked, taking in Jane's short unpolished nails and distinct lack of mascara.

"Yeah, well no amount of makeup would make you prettier Sanchez" I just shook my head slowly at them.

The testosterone's getting a bit thick around here don't you think? Can't you two go off into the woods and do macho stuff to work it out?" Jane smiled at Sanchez.

"Well you know the saying, two go out, but only one comes back"

"Don't worry Rizzoli, I'm sure the rest of the squad would miss you" Sanchez grinned.

"Yeah, after all someone's got to add some class to this outfit, cause you're sure not holding your end up" Jane winked at me as she fired the latest shot in an ongoing skirmish.

I rolled my eyes, '_boys will be boys, even when they're girls_'

"Can't you give it a break? Go shoot something and get it out of your systems" I watched as both detectives turned to face one another, their eyes narrowing as they gauged each other. Jane grinned as my instincts went '_whoops, that was the wrong thing to say_'.

"Pistol range?" Sanchez smiled in return.

"How soon?"

"Next week"

"Sure, give you time to practice, you'll need it".

"I don't need to practice to beat you Sanchez".

Awfully sure of yourself Rizzoli, want to put some money on it? Say twenty bucks?"

"Twenty? You always did think small, can't say as I'm surprised though. What with your equipment issues and all, let's make it fifty". Ignoring the cheap crack, Sanchez smiled.

"Fifty? Sure. Don't forget to bring the money with you" Jane snorted.

"Huh, it's not that I don't trust you Sanchez, but I'll take my winnings in cash on the day thanks" I watched as they eyed one another off.

"Oh my god, don't you two ever give up?" Both heads turned to face me as they simultaneously spoke.

"No'.

Just then Tao peered round the door.

"Sanchez. Rizzoli, have you finished checking the neighbours, did anyone hear or see anything last night?"

Shaking my head, I walked back down the stairs and the waiting camera crews, wondering '_what did I just do?'_


	24. Chapter 24

**Anastasia asks Jane to come over **

Jane's viewpoint

I was sitting at my desk, feeling like I was slowly sinking in quicksand, getting deeper and deeper, chasing up the leads that Ana was turning up from the Fed's database, mostly gun shops that had sold Barrett's. Hours of countless phone calls across the country and getting nowhere fast, no one knew anything helpful.

I let my head fall back and dragged my fingers through my hair. I just wanted to go home and fall into bed, preferably with Maura giving me one of her wonderful neck massages. After that I just wanted to sleep, I was too tired to even contemplate doing anything more than falling asleep with Maura tonight.

I sighed deeply and pulled my head forward in time to see Ana walk in to the murder room and head my way. I smiled, which turned to a groan when I saw she had another pile of papers in her hand. She smiled at my expression.

"Hey Jane, lucky last ones" I grimaced, waving at the discard pile on my desk.

"Hope they pan out better than the last batch" She sat on the edge of my desk and pursed her lips.

"Nothing turn up so far? I shook my head tiredly.

"A whole lot of nothing" Ana looked at me for a second then leaned in to peer closely at my face. "What's up" I said, a little defensively.

"Jesus Jane, you look like shit" I shrugged, trying to act cool.

"Well thank you, Captain Tact" Ana just looked at me, it felt like she was seeing right through me. "In case you hadn't noticed, we've been a bit busy"

"You need a decent night's sleep Jane. I heard you've been working late most nights" I looked up, pissed. Who had been gossiping about me I wondered?

"Who told you that?" She shrugged, unfazed.

"I hear things. Obviously it's true" I looked away.

"I'll be fine once we close this case" She said nothing, the silence getting longer and longer. Eventually I looked back at her. "What?"

"Take an early night Jane, the case will be here again tomorrow and you'll be a lot sharper after a decent sleep"

I shook my head; even though I wanted to so bad I could taste it. Suddenly Ana reached out and placed her hand over mine. Surprised I looked up.

"I'm amazed Maura hasn't been in to read you the riot act Jane. Shit, Natalie would kick my ass, high heels and all, if she thought I was overdoing it" I shrugged.

"She's kinda used to it. We have a smaller team in Boston and it's not unusual to pull extra hours on a case"

"Well, Major Crimes has a much bigger squad so that you don't have to pull all-nighters. In fact it seems most of them have already wrapped up for the night"

I looked around surprised; only Flynn was still at his deck, going over witness statements. I hadn't realised that everyone else had gone. Well, almost everyone, I saw the Chief still at her desk, doing paperwork. What time was it anyway? Oh, 7.45. I groaned out loud.

Ana looked over to Flynn and called out

Hey Lieutenant, what are you still doing here?" Startled, he looked up.

"Oh hi Ana, I must have lost track of time" He looked at his watch and cursed, pushing his chair back and grabbing for his coat.

"Thanks for reminding me, I have a meeting tonight. Night guys"

Night Flynn" I called after him as he hurried out the door. Ana chuckled, looking down at me.

"One down, two to go"

"What do you mean?" She pushed herself up and wandered in the direction of the Chief's office. Oh shit. Before I could say anything she called out to the office.

"Good evening Chief Johnson" I groaned again and buried my head in my hands. Why did she have to interfere?"

"Well good evening to you Anastasia, what brings you down here so late?"

"I was dropping some leads on Jane's desk on my way out the door, when I noticed her, Flynn and you were still here. He just bolted, so that leaves just you two" She looked up and out at me.

"I'd lost track of time. I suppose we should wrap up for the night" I heard Ana's voice as she walked back towards me.

"Sounds good" I looked up to see Chief Johnson wandering out of her office and headed my way. Oh Shit.

"Detective Rizzoli, you should head home as well" I tried to smile.

"It's OK, Chief, just running down a few more gun shops" She stopped next to the desk and looked down at me.

"I would rather you head on home. Those gun shops will still be there in the morning and you have someone waiting for you" I tried to wave her off concerns away.

"I was just going to work back a little longer" She was having none of it.

"It's getting late here, the only gun shops likely to still be open are in Alaska and Hawaii and they can wait as well" She smirked. "Besides, I don't want a very annoyed Maura Isles coming after me for working her girlfriend to death"

I looked up, startled. I hadn't really mentioned our relationship in front of the Chief, or anyone else in the squad really. Only Ana and Natalie were really aware of it, or so I thought.

"Don't worry; you've both been quite discreet, which I appreciate. You don't work in the same squad so it's really none of my, or anyone else's business" I nodded slowly and she smiled.

"Not like Anastasia here, she and Natalie can barely keep their hands to themselves" I grinned at Ana's yelp of protest

"That's not true! At work anyway, we're quite careful" I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, right, I see the eye sex between you two constantly; it never stops" I heard the Chief's giggle behind me and turned to look at her raising my eyebrows at me "What?"

"Jane, you and Maura can give them a run for their money anytime" I paused, partly because it was the first time she had called me Jane and partly because I was wondering if we were really that obvious.

"We're not that bad" I protested weakly.

"Oh yes you are!" Ana grinned at me triumphantly.

"Hey, you're supposed to be on my side"

"I am, I'm harassing you to go home for entirely selfish reasons" I looked over at her through lidded eyes.

"And what might they be?" She shrugged, glancing at the Chief.

"I want you to be rested before you take on Sanchez on the pistol range" I felt my face flush.

"How did you know about that?"

""Natalie was there remember" On yeah, I forgot.

"So what's your interest then?" She shrugged.

"I have a side bet with Gabriel, $40 dollars on you to win" I was about to reply when the Chief interrupted.

"I hope you haven't done your money Anastasia, Julio's a fine shot"

"Well, a little bird whispered in my ear that Jane has shot marksman since her recruit days" I looked up, startled.

"How did you find that out?" She snickered.

"Hey, I work for the evil Feds, Big Brother and all that. I checked first before I laid a bet" I was staring up at Ana, my mouth hanging open when Chief Johnson spoke.

"Anastasia, I think the Bureau might consider that unethical" She looked back at the Chief.

"Maybe, maybe not; when I decided to look up Jane's scores, I also looked up the rest of the squad's. Everyone on the team shoots well up in the LAPD rankings"

"Well, I do insist all my officers spend time at the pistol range, lord knows we find ourselves having to use them often enough"

"You're not too bad yourself Chief. In fact you shoot damn well, particularly for a senior officer" Chief Johnson smiled fondly to herself.

"Oh, that was my daddy's work, he taught me to shoot with a BB gun almost as soon as I could hold one"

"I can't believe you looked up my, our, scores" I was still shocked. Ana was unfazed and unapologetic.

"One day I might be relying on one of you for backup, it's nice to know my trust is well placed" she smiled at me, almost fondly. "Anyway I want you well rested before you shoot. My moneys riding on you"

I noticed Chief Johnson was looking at me, her eyes narrowed and her hands on her hips. I gulped, wondering if I was in trouble. Ana noticed it as well.

"You're not angry are you Chief?" She looked up at her and smiled.

"No, I was just thinking it's a shame I can't get into the betting pool, but it's not right for the boss to be backing one team member over another, is it?"

"No it's not. Not unless you can get someone else to lay the bet on for you" Ana winked at us.

"I wonder who would do such a thing?"

"Probably anyone would Chief, if you asked nicely".

"Are you trying to corrupt me Agent Romanov?" I could hear the teasing tone in the boss's voice. She was enjoying this.

"Me? No, we leave that to those truly sneaky CIA types. Remember I'm from the Bureau, one of Hoovers incorruptible G Men"

"Really, you must be talking about a different bureau than the one I'm familiar with"

"Well, we're nothing if not flexible in our positions" I suddenly snorted, remembering that ass Dean back in Boston. Both looked at me. The Chief smiled.

"Looks like I'm not the only one having some difficulties with that image"

I thought about explaining, but let it ride, seeing a blush creep across Ana's face. I suddenly realised that her last statement could be taken several different ways.

Hastily changing the subject Ana looked at the Chief.

"I'm sure I could place a bet for you Chief" Hmm, it wasn't just me; someone else had seen where there that innuendo had been going. I desperately tried not to think of Ana and Natalie in various positions naked.

Chief Johnson if anything smiled even wider.

"Why that's very kind of you to offer Special Agent Romanov, but I'll have to decline your offer on this occasion" I caught a wicked look in her eye as she continued.

"After all, the last thing any of us want is to see you in an embarrassing position" Oh god, did she just say that? Ana if anything went even redder.

I could see the Chief was smiling and looked quite relaxed, more so than most of the time I had seen her since I arrived. She was really enjoying the teasing. Ana made a valiant effort to salvage her position.

"I'm sure you won't see us in anything embarrassing Chief" I decided two could tease as easily as one.

"That's good Ana; I wouldn't want to hear anything embarrassing either. That would be…awkward" Ana looked at me with an appalled expression as Chief Johnson chuckled.

"I don't think you're going to win from this position Anastasia, perhaps you should quit while you're behind" Just then I let out a massive yawn, causing them both to laugh. Ana took the chance to escape with some of her dignity intact.

"I think we should all be heading home, it's quite late enough" The Chief smirked at her, fully aware of Ana's ploy. I decided to push Brenda, given Maura's recent comments and concerns about her well-being.

"What about you Chief, you heading home too?" She looked at me and sighed.

"I really should finish these fitness reports, HR is giving me hell about them not being finished yet" I shrugged,

"Seems to me they'll bitch whether you finish them tonight and hand them in in the morning, or finish them in the morning and hand them in tomorrow afternoon. Might as well face them with a good night's sleep behind you" Ana smiled.

"I came up here to hassle Jane into going home at a reasonable hour, as her superior officer you should be leading by example" Chief Johnson raised an eyebrow at her.

"I think the only examples I can provide are bad ones" She sighed. "OK, I'll wrap up as well"

"We'll walk you down to the car park; I can't exactly say I like any of us taking that long walk alone in the dark at this hour to get there" The Chief nodded.

"Let me log off and grab my bag" She turned and walked back into her office. Ana turned back to me as she walked away and I started logging out of the system.

"There was another reason I dropped by"

"Oh?"

"Yes, I was told to tell you to come over to our place on Saturday morning. Maura and Nat are apparently going shopping" I groaned; Maura's shopping expeditions are legendary.

"On Rodeo Drive, if you want to know" I grimaced.

"Why am I coming, are we holding their bags?" Ana shook her head.

"Nope, Natalie and Maura are doing some girl-girl bonding over retail therapy, while we do some of the same, over at the FBI pistol range"

"You really don't want to lose that bet do you?" She grinned wickedly.

"I don't like losing, period" I understood how she felt, I felt the same way.

Just then Chief Johnson walked up in a peach trench coat, that massive bag over her shoulder.

"We ready?" I stood up.

"Yep"

"Then let's get out of here"


	25. Chapter 25

**Trivia Night**

Jane's viewpoint

O'Malley's was just like almost every cop bar in every city in the US. Sometimes it'd be a fake Irish pub, sometimes not, but the place was usually no more than moderately loud, fights were usually few and far between and the staff had learned to be accepting of quiet drunks, lord knows they saw enough, as a cop tried to come to terms with the latest horror to cross his or, increasingly, her path.

Jane wasn't a drunk, well, not often she admitted to herself, but she knew some female cops who found at least as much solace in the bottom of a bottle as their male counterparts.

Sometimes, when she was completely honest with herself, she realised that she was probably going to end up an alcoholic and dead early, if she hadn't found Maura, or more correctly, they hadn't found each other.

She used to like a beer, hanging out with the other cops back at the Dirty Robber in Boston, back when Jane was a beat cop and later working vice. It was part of the bonding you did with your colleagues, helping to build a wall between your abused feelings and the nasty world out there. She'd continued that when she moved across to Homicide, aided and abetted by her partner, Vince Korsak.

Hoyt had changed that, like he'd changed so much else, '_burn in hell you fucker_'.

She'd spiralled into depression, panic attacks and climbed into a bottle to hide from what he'd done to her, what he'd taken from her. Even when she was allowed back to work, she'd still spent too many nights drinking herself into a stupor, to the point that she could fall asleep without reliving the events of that night, down in that basement.

It'd taken her years before she could face the night, free from the certainty of a parade of nightmares, the worst of which was Hoyt raping her over and over again, helpless to stop him, willing herself to die to make it end.

She'd started to recover; then Hoyt had escaped and attacked her again. The nightmares came back full force; the only thing that had stopped her descending back into an alcoholic haze had been Maura.

Maura and her own shame at letting her best friend see her like that, a broken, drunken wreck. The nights she stayed at Maura's house, or Maura crashed at her place, were the nights that she stayed sober, trading a disturbed night's sleep for the friendship and company she so desperately craved. Then one night, a particularly bad nightmare had caused her to thrash and moan like an animal in agonising pain, drawing Maura from her room to the guest bedroom.

At her gentle voice Jane had jerked awake, to find Maura's warm eyes and comforting embrace awaiting her. That night they'd talked for hours about why she had nightmares, why she couldn't get a decent night's sleep, what Hoyt had done to her and what she'd been terrified of him doing to her once again.

Jane had opened herself in a way that she had been unable to with the Department's shrink, trusting that Maura would never judge her, would never look down on her with either contempt or even worse, pity, in her eyes. Eventually, Maura had climbed into bed with her and just held her, whispering meaningless, comforting words to her until Jane had finally fallen asleep, to find the nightmares muted and bearable.

Over the next few weeks, that had been enough to allow Jane to regain her sense of balance, her control, as she put the events of that terrible night behind her, or so she thought.

Jane had been able to spend more and more nights alone, less driven to seek out Maura for safety, even though as far back as then she had admitted to herself that she wanted to share Maura's bed, to be someone special in her life, even if it was only platonically.

Then Hoyt had gone after Maura.

That afternoon in the hospital infirmary had been the worst day of her life, worse than Hoyt's first attack, worse even than the day she'd put a bullet through herself to stop a rogue cop. In each case the pain had been hers, unbearable but private, done to protect others.

But Hoyt had hurt Maura. Jane had failed to keep the person who meant more to her than anything on earth safe, even worse it was at the hands of the vilest monster Jane had ever crossed paths with

That's why he had to die. Jane had told everyone it had been self defence, but she'd lied. She had beaten Hoyt, she had the knife and the upper hand, she was in control, but he'd hurt Maura. For that there could only be one penalty and Jane had exacted it, judge, jury and executioner. She'd not regretted that decision in the slightest. Her only regret was that she hadn't put a bullet through his head and another through his black heart when she'd had the chance the last time they'd met.

After the 'surprise' birthday party that night, Maura had hung around till she was the last one there and in no uncertain terms told Jane that she was coming back to her house and sleeping with her that night. Jane couldn't have argued with her, even if she wanted to.

They had sat up talking until exhaustion claimed them, but that first night had been horrific, with both of them waking up screaming at different times, each desperately needing the other's reassurance that they were ok, that they were alive. Maura had seen Jane die before her eyes, for Jane it was Maura's corpse being raped by Hoyt while she was pinned down to the ground by scalpels through her hands once again.

For the next few months they had slept together, each a reassuring, comforting presence as they set forth to do battle with the demons who haunted their dreams, slowly coming to grips with their fears and vanquishing them.

Eventually they had been able to once again sleep alone and had started to do so, to their individual, private anguish. It had taken many more months before they realised that they only slept well when they were together.

As anyone else could have told them, everything they did, they did better together.

It had been more than a year later before they finally admitted that their lives were incomplete without the other, that they needed each other, not as friends, but as so much more.

'_We wasted so much goddamned time_'

"Hey Jane, I asked if you want a beer?" Anastasia's voice dragged her back from her memories to O'Malley's on a busy Friday night.

"Sorry Ana, MGD 64, if they've got it" Jane shook her head, too much wool gathering. Maura leaned in, looking a little concerned.

"Are you sure you're alright darling?" I smiled, trying to divert Maura, I really should know better.

"Sure am babe, was just day dreaming" She leaned back, studying me.

"Your nasojugal folds are showing excessive darkening" Natalie leaned in, confused.

"Her what?" Mura smiled.

"Dark rings under her eyes, indicative of not enough sleep" Natalie laughed.

"Then let her alone so she can get some sleep Maura!" I laughed at Maura's slight blush.

"We'll wrap up after tonight's game and head home, what time's it supposed to finish?" Natalie frowned slightly.

"Around eight thirty or nine I think" I nodded.

"Let's get some food, I'm starving"

Ana walked back juggling a white wine and three Heineken's, one of which she handed to me.

"Sorry, no MGD's so try a euro-brew" I shrugged.

"It's cold and wet" I took a quick taste. "Not bad"

"Yeah, we got a taste for it in Europe. Cheers" We tapped our drinks. Natalie pointed to a table marked 'Trivia Competition'.

"C'mon, let's get registered and grab some food. Jane here's already complaining about eating" Ana looked at me and rolled her eyes.

"So what's new, I swear you have hollow legs, how else do you stay that thin?" I grinned.

"Good living" I expected the groans from the others, but not from Maura, I swear these two are a bad influence on her.

We headed over to the table and registered, paying the $5.00 per person rego fee, before wandering over to the kitchen and picking out dinner. It was one of those cook it yourself on a huge gas grill places. I don't mind them as I get a steak the way I like it.

We threw our steaks on the grill, plus potatoes wrapped in foil, standing there flipping them occasionally while chatting. Over the 20 or so minutes we stood there more than dozen guys wandered up to cook, plus another dozen who came to chat, either to their friends or more usually to us.

I watched as a number of officers buzzed around Natalie which should have pissed off Ana, but she was calm about it, calmer than I was at the guys who were walking up to chat to Maura.

As I watched however, I noticed Natalie was happy to say hi, but just as easily deflected people into conversations with each other or pulled Ana into the conversation. For one or two who didn't seem to be getting the message, she'd lean in and give Ana a quick kiss, or casually introduce Ana as her partner, which shut most of them down, though not without a lot of disappointed looks, usually covered by a smile as the cop in question realised that not only was she out of their league, she was taken.

I leaned in to Maura and asked if she had noticed it, which she had. Natalie did it so well that most of the guys went away happy, probably she'd had plenty of practice. Maura was fending off some attention of her own however she wasn't as good at handling the interested guys, so I had to lean in from time to time to let people know she was taken.

One or two were being a little insistent, which was starting to piss me off. Fortunately Ana picked up on what was happening and caught Natalie's eye. Natalie was chatting to Captain Turner from Harbour division, who was apparently there to celebrate one of his people being promoted to Lieutenant.

I had to admit she was smooth, Natalie easily pulled Maura and I into a discussion with Turner, subtly excluding the pushy cops who backed off from the Captain's rank, leaving us in a small circle to chat. Turner was pleasant, when he found out we were on secondment from Boston he happily extended an invitation to all of us to visit his division for a tour.

Catching Ana's eye, I gave her a small nod of thanks for the save, at which she smiled gently and winked.

Our meat was done soon enough, so we wandered back to our table, via the salad bar, at which point Maura loaded my plate up with enough greens to feed a family of rabbits for a week. I was going to protest when she gave me 'the look'.

Realising I wasn't going to win this one I shut up and walked back to our table, trying to ignore Natalie's smirk as she sat down.

"What?"

"Jane, you are so whipped" I scowled, before noticing the plate full of greens on her plate, Ana's handiwork I was sure.

"Like you're not?" She glanced over to where Ana was grabbing us another round, then down at the pile of salad on her plate and smiled quietly.

"Good point"

We wrapped up dinner as the tournament kicked off, five rounds with each round having a theme. I looked around and realised that the competition was a bigger deal than I'd thought, there must have been twenty or thirty teams of six settled around tables, happily drinking and relaxing.

Maura leaned in to be heard over the din.

"What exactly is the prize Natalie?"

"It's a one hundred and fifty dollar drinks and meal voucher, good any night here"

"That's a generous prize, no wonder there's so much competition" Ana leaned in.

"It's a good deal for them, look at how many groups are here letting off steam on a Friday night, that's a lot of money across the bar tonight"

We watched as waiters wandered through, dropping complimentary bowls of peanuts and other salted nibbles on the tables. Maura nodded.

"The salted snacks only encourage people to drink more. Clever" Natalie laughed.

"That's the name of the game" I frowned, looking at the table stand with a hand lettered card stuck in it, reading L.A.L.E.L.

"What does that…" I indicated the card. "…mean?" Natalie coloured.

"I had to register us on the spur of the moment over the phone and had a mental blank. The first two names I thought up were taken, so I just grabbed the first thing that came to mind" I looked at her.

"And…" She blushed even more.

"Los Angeles Law Enforcement… Ladies" I caught Ana's snigger.

"Lesbian's more likely" I looked around.

"You didn't really?" She looked back over at me.

"No, I just gave them the acronym, it's our secret" I wasn't sure what I felt, but Maura's hand on my arm drew me back to her, where I took in her smile and mentally shrugged. It was cool with her so it was cool with me I suppose.

The MC, a guy with an outrageously fake Irish accent, stood up, dressed in some weird ass Leprechaun outfit. Introducing himself as Seamus O'Malley, he started running us through the rules, which were pretty simple.

Five rounds of ten questions, each round with a theme. The winner was the team with the highest score at the end. If there was a tie the prize would be split equally between the winning teams. It sounded simple enough.

The first round got underway, with Seamus announcing the round was 'collective nouns'. What the hell was a collective noun? Fortunately in response to my blank look, Maura leaned in.

"Names for groups or collections of things, like a school of fish or a flock of birds" Natalie nodded.

"Stuff like a den of snakes or a troop of boy scouts" I shrugged.

"Don't look at me for help; I'm here for the sports stuff"

We actually did pretty well, thanks to Maura and Natalie; who would have thought a group of owls was called a parliament? Not me that's for sure. Maura in particular was in her element, though I had to smile when she picked a bale of turtles. When I asked what about tortoises, she drew a blank, which I had to laugh at, given how often she pulls me up about Bass being a tortoise, not a turtle.

We handed our score sheet in, before getting a different group's sheet to check. Seamus ran through the answers and we had a bit of a cheer, as we'd got 8 out of 10; a lot more than the team we were scoring and, based on the amount of groans around the room at some of the answers, a lot more than most.

Round two was sports history, which left me rubbing my hands together, that one was right up my alley, or so I thought. How the hell was I to know which two teams played the Soccer World Cup in 1990? Or that Australia had won more Cricket World Cups than any other nation?

Fortunately the rest were the more usual hockey, basketball, football and baseball questions, still I thought we were lucky to come out with 7 correct. It would have been 6, but Natalie corrected my guess that the number three NHL scorer after Wayne Gretzky was Brett Hull, not Gordie Howe. I was willing to argue the toss, but she was adamant and I gave it to her. Turned out her father thought Hull was a better player than Howe, but the rankings didn't reflect it.

Still, that left us on 15 out of a possible 20, which put us in the top five teams.

The next two rounds, on politics and movies did us no real favours, Nat and Ana pulled us into some sort of shape on US politics, but we were pretty clueless on international politics, I thought we were lucky to get away with 5 points. The movies round should have been easier, until they started digging into silent movies and foreign language films. Between all of us we eked out 6 points, really only because Maura knew the book Slumdog Millionaire was based on.

By the end of four rounds we were 26 out of a possible 40, which kept us in the hunt, but off the front running team, called Wall Street Wanabees.

The final round was all about music, which we all piled in on, snatching 9 out of 10, only messing up the name of the male and female singers who sang '_Up Where We Belong_' from an '_Officer and a Gentleman_'. None of us were sure, so we guessed.

We got Jennifer Warne right, but missed Joe Cocker, picking Bill Medley, which turned out to be the pairing for another duet, when he and Warne did '_I've had the time of my life_' from '_Dirty Dancing_'. Should have known better, given Maura and I have watched both movies at least twice each.

No points for half right saw us with 9 for the round and a total of 35 out of 50.

That saw us slide into third place behind a group of the LAPD's IT geeks on 38, who absolutely killed us on politics and the front runners, the same team who'd led into the final round, the Wall Street Wanabees, on 41 points.

Turned out they were a group of bankers who won more often than not according to some of the cops there. They were rooting for someone to knock them off their perch and congratulated us for doing so well first time out, especially with only four people.

It was almost 9.15 by the time we made our way out of O'Malley's, it'd been a good night, Ana and Natalie had been good company and it had been a great way to de-stress after a long week, which had been the whole idea.

We exchanged good nights, kisses and hugs, plus reminders that we were catching up at their place tomorrow before going our separate ways.

I smiled as we walked back to our car. We saw Natalie and Ana all week at work, we'd just spent Friday evening together and were planning to see each other tomorrow to do more stuff together. I was about to comment when Maura leaned into me with a sigh.

"You ok babe?" She looked up at me with a smile.

"I am; I had a good time tonight. Natalie and Anastasia were so nice to invite us out, I had so much fun"

"I think they invited us for the company too"

"Well I don't care, I had fun" She glanced up at me. "Did you?"

I smiled; the answer coming easily, mostly because it was the truth.

"Yes I did, I had a good time" Maura's smile lit up the night.

"C'mon, let's go home and we can go to bed" I lifted an eyebrow at the teasing tone in her voice.

"To sleep?" A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.

"Eventually"


	26. Chapter 26

**LAPD Ball countdown**

Jane's viewpoint

While Natalie and Maura got all 'girly' in the bedroom looking at clothes in the closet, Ana and I were talking in the kitchen making coffee. She had trained as a barista in Italy while living there, which explained the fancy espresso machine on the bench.

"You and Maura are coming to the LADP Benefit Ball aren't you? It's next month"

I looked down; I was dreading the Ball, especially as attendance was expected.

"I guess so; Maura has to go so I'll have to"

"So the problem is…?"

"She'll want me to wear long dresses and heels and get my hair and nails done and I hate that Ana. It's just not me" Anastasia just smiled at my discomfort.

"I hear you, I used to be the same way; I got over it"

"You got _over it_?"

"Stop looking at it from your perspective and look at it from Maura's. She loves you, god knows why though" At this point I snorted and gave her the patented Rizzoli eye roll, without much success as Ana just sniggered briefly before continuing to make my coffee.

"Don't try that Rizzoli, it doesn't work on me, Natalie does it much better anyway. So, Maura is incredibly proud of you and want's to show you off to the world in the best possible way"

"But I hate all the girly stuff!"

"Last time I looked you were one" Couldn't argue with that, though I tried.

"Ha ha, thank you very much".

"Now you sound like Chief Johnson" I plastered a weak imitation of the Chief's patented 1000 watt smile on my face.

"Why thank yeew, thank yeew so very much"

"But she has a better Southern accent" Ana said as she tried to stifle laughter and handed my cup over. The coffee was good; she still knew how to.

"I'd hope so; you do know I'm from Boston right?"

"I try not to think about it actually"

"What?" She ignored my outburst.

"Seriously though, they look good in evening dresses, well Nat does and the way Maura dresses normally she would be even more delicious in a gown"

"Delicious?" I interrupted; my eyebrow's rising along with my voice. Ana smacked me lightly on the arm.

"I love you when you get all jealous, it's very… endearing. Anyway, don't interrupt me when I'm pontificating. What I meant was that they look great that way and think that we look at our best, at least in their eyes, dressed up the same way".

"Aww, it's not me though" Even I could hear the whine in my voice. Frankly, I hated dresses, uncomfortable heels and guys trying to peer down my top at my tits and especially having to pretend to be all ladylike. Her eyes ran over me, cataloguing me.

"I don't know, you're tall, slim, long legs, long hair and apparently scrub up well, or so Maura says, so you should look '_delicious_' in a dress as well" Shit, was that a compliment? From someone who had Natalie? Play it cool Rizzoli.

"Been checking me out, Miss Romanov?" I enquired as I tried to cover my embarrassment by getting interested in my coffee, she sniggered.

"Nah, not my type, I prefer sweet and demure actually" I choked at that image, the coffee going down the wrong way. Once I stopped spluttering I stared at her.

"Demure? Yeah right. Explain Natalie then" Ana pretended to ponder the question for a moment.

"Hmmm, OK, you got me there. Anyway, there are three very important reasons why you should wear an evening gown to the ball, no matter how 'uncomfortable' you might feel looking fabulous" she said, putting air quotes around 'uncomfortable'. I put my best 'sceptical' look on as she continued.

"And they are…" Ana help up her index finger.

"One, you will have made Maura very happy, which should be more than enough reason" Well she had me there. I was never going to win that argument with Maura, not when it made her happy. Smiling, she held up a second finger as she went on.

"Two, she will be very, very grateful for you making the effort to look good for her on an important occasion in front of your friends and colleagues, and the brownie points accrued are always useful" Uncoiling a third finger Ana continued.

"Third and most importantly, they are very, very VERY appreciative afterwards. Trust me on this, I speak from experience" I put the cup down and looked at her.

"Very appreciative huh?"

"Yep, I usually have trouble keeping Nat's hands off me all night, which isn't a bad thing, and I get absolutely no sleep that night. So, if you see me walking funny the next day you know why" I tried desperately to not let my mind go where the mental images that statement conjured up led to.

"Oh."

"Yes. Oh." Ana smirked evilly at me as she went on, her voice taking on a throaty timbre I had never heard before. Frankly it sent thrills down my spine, she sounded like Maura when she was coming undone.

"Well actually, it's more like _Oh God. Oh yes. Oh my God. Oh don't stop. Oh yeah, ooh…_ "The last came out as almost a moan.

"I get it, I get it" I interrupted quickly, causing Ana to quietly laugh.

"Oh you will, trust me"

There was a pause as I picked up my coffee and sipped it, looking at Anastasia over the rim of the cup.

"Appreciative?"

"Very"

"Trouble walking afterwards?" She grinned wickedly.

"Oh yeah"

"You better not bail on me Ana, If I turn up in a dress and you're not …"

"I'll be there; I have very good incentive to be in a dress"

"You sure have, you leave me in the lurch on this Ana, so help me I will kill you"

Just then Natalie's voice echoed from the bedroom.

"Hey, weren't you making us coffee's? Where's ours?" Ana rolled her eyes at me.

"Yes dear, coming".

"You are so whipped" I laughed. She rolled her eyes again.

"Like you're not?"

Well, not that badly" Ana turned back to the espresso machine, a slow smile forming.

"How does Maura take her coffee?" Without thinking I rattled out Maura's coffee order as I did most days.

"A medium strong Latte with skim if you have it and no sugar" Anastasia laughed raucously.

"No, not whipped at all are you?"

"Shut up and make the coffee"


	27. Chapter 27

**Jane and Ana at the range**

Jane's viewpoint

We had been at it for 40 minutes, potting silhouette targets at a variety of ranges and speeds, when we stopped to take a break. Ana was good, but I was better. More practice at live targets over the years I guess.

As I took a drink of water, I looked across at Ana and tried to figure her out. It'd been bothering me for a while and I really wanted to know the answer. She looked up and raised an eyebrow in a question. No time like the present I thought.

"Why are you doing this?"

"I told you, I don't like to lose" I shook my head.

"No, I mean all of it; this, Maura and Natalie out shopping together, trivia, dinners, everything" She paused for a moment, before looking back at me.

"Ah, well that. Nat and I like you both. We want you to be happy"

"Why? We barely know you, hell you barely know us" She shrugged.

"It's as much about us as it is about you. We arrived here the same time you did, didn't know anyone and then bam, we all walked straight into the sniper case, then the massacre and it's been full on since then. We kind of found ourselves thrown together since pretty much day one. It short circuited a lot of the getting to know you thing" I nodded, remembering the long hours on crime scenes or working together chasing down leads.

"Plus, you stood there to protect Natalie when I wasn't there, that buys you a mile of goodwill"

"Yeah, it's been pretty intense" She looked at me for a moment before continuing.

"We needed to find friends as much as you did. Look around you; don't see that many lesbian couples in the LAPD. Then we find you and Maura, right under our feet, bumping into you every day, talking over lunch, standing around at crime scenes for hours in the middle of the night. We found ourselves reaching out to you, because you were there. Without you and Maura, we would probably still be alone, still looking for friends" I frowned, thinking over what she said, before slowly nodding.

"Maura and I were never really very social back home, back in Boston we tended to have a small circle of friends, mostly people we worked with or were my family, if you don't count the whole society BS that Maura keeps getting dragged into, which I don't. We're glad you were there"

I paused for a moment, thinking of how much Maura had been looking forward to today's shopping trip with Natalie, she'd been up early this morning, foregoing yoga to research the best shops on Rodeo Boulevard. I could never deny Maura anything and seeing her happy lifted my soul. I had to be honest.

"I'm glad you were there" She smiled back at me.

"Well, we understand that being a lesbian couple and working together can be difficult, especially in a male-dominated environment like law enforcement" I mulled over her words, thinking that they didn't really fit with Maura and I.

"I don't really feel like a lesbian, it's not really a label I feel comfortable with" She looked across at me with a '_really?_' expression on her face.

"Then what exactly are doing sharing a bed with Maura then if you're not a lesbian?" I shook my head, feeling a bit defensive and trying to explain my thinking.

"Well, it's more a Maura thing, I love her. I'm not attracted to women, just her" To be honest I was getting a bit nervous where this conversation was going. I'm not good with the whole feelings thing, even with Maura. Ana leaned back, looking at me, then she half laughed, half snorted.

"I call bull shit on that. Explain how you reacted to Natalie then. Tell me you weren't attracted to her" I felt my face redden, remembering how her body molded to mine when she hugged me in the kitchen.

"Well… that's different"

"Like, how exactly?" I stared at my boots, trying to work out what to say, that would satisfy her and not get me even further on the hook. I temporised.

"Shit, this is uncomfortable" It didn't work, she kept looking at me.

"So is life, talk to me" she commanded. I knew my face must be beetroot red. I desperately tried to change the subject, find something safer to discuss.

"You ready for another round"

"No" Her voice was flat, she obviously saw through my diversion. Damn, I really didn't' want to talk about this, to face what was bothering me. There was a long pause while I tried to get my thoughts in order. Ana didn't push it, for which I was grateful. She just sat and waited.

"I didn't go looking, she was standing there, then next thing she was snuggled up to me, I would never have made a move on her, even if I wasn't with Maura and she was single" I looked up to see Ana smiling gently, I couldn't tell in amusement or maybe disbelief. I tried to explain further.

"It's true, I'm really not interested in her; it just kinda caught me by surprise" She laughed at me, not exactly helping the situation.

"Of course, Jane Rizzoli, bad ass detective, scourge of evil doers everywhere, nearly dies of embarrassment because you get a hug. From a girl" I shook my head, trying to explain my way out of this.

"It was just a surprise. I wasn't expecting her to do that"

"Look Jane, whatever label you hang on it, you are what you are" She leaned back, smiling at me.

"Natalie is stunning, I'm not blind to the effect that she has on everyone around her, although it took me a damned long time to come to terms with it. You saw what happened last night and that was actually pretty mild, it can get a lot worse. She's also very 'physical' with friends. That's why I warned you both. Remember?" I nodded slowly, remembering her words at dinner.

"Jane, Natalie doesn't want to fuck you or Maura, just that she extends her love to her friends and in her world that means being tactile and cuddly and well, all over her friends" I chewed my lip as I considered her words. Seeing that I was backed into a corner I tried honesty.

"Well, I was embarrassed as hell, plus I was terrified about what Maura would think" Ana laughed.

"And what did she think?" I had to smile.

"She thought it was funny as anything and that Nat was gorgeous and you were great…" I paused to look Ana straight in the eyes. "…and that she loved having you both in our lives" Ana chuckled at me and leaned forward.

"See, as smart as she is pretty; honestly, did you ever doubt that Maura would love you, that she loves you and that she always will, no matter what?"

I stared down at my hands, seeing their scars, seeing Hoyt holding a scalpel to Maura's throat and realising all over again that she had nearly died because of me; all because Hoyt wanted to hurt me again by killing her, the twisted fucker.

I seemed to only bring Maura pain, Hoyt, Merino, her father, even that bastard Ian, she walked away from him to be with me. The love of her life she had said. Then she ended up with me, and all I brought was pain.

"No, she loves me. God knows why" The words were out before I realised I'd spoken, the tone almost bitter with self-loathing. I hung my head, suddenly realising I'd said far too much.

The silence stretched out and became painful. Finally I looked up to see Ana staring at me, those great grey eyes fixed on me.

"What the hell are you worried about Jane?" Damn, I said too much; that's why I don't talk about feelings; it only gets me into trouble and I've never been good at them. I had to get away from this, from here.

I moved to stand up, to be shocked when Ana reached across and pushed me back into my seat. I felt my temper flare, and turned it onto her full force.

"What the hell Ana! Who do you think you are" I stood up and stared down at her, she stared up at me, obviously angry.

"Sit the fuck down Jane. We need to talk"

"There's nothing to talk about, I've said enough already" I crossed my arms and stared away, towards the range. Finally she spoke, softly.

"I think we have a lot to talk about Jane, and as neither of us is going anywhere we might as well start here" I looked back at her, then away.

"I said there was nothing to talk about" God damn it, why won't people stay out of my business.

"I'm as stubborn, or as Natalie and possibly Maura would say, as pig headed as you. You might as well talk to me; otherwise we might be here for a while. Besides, we came in my car" I stared back at her, my arms crossed.

"Fine, I'll get a cab then" She shrugged.

"You could, but you won't. That would mean running away and you don't do that, do you?"

"How would you know what I do?"

"We're a lot more alike than you might like to think Jane. We've both been changed for the better by someone else. Now maybe we should talk about it"

"There's nothing to talk about"

"I think there is and I want to talk" She shrugged. "It's the least I can do"

I looked around, trying to convince myself that I could get up and walk away, from Ana, and Natalie, and Maura's disappointment that I had caused a rift with our only friends here in LA. It was the last that tipped the scales, it always would. I sighed.

"Why can't you mind your own business?"

"You are my business, you and Maura. I'd be a pretty poor friend if I was to sit back and watch you fuck it up without trying to help"

"Fuck what up?"

"Your relationship with Maura" I stared at her, appalled and a little afraid.

The silence stretched out, it must have lasted a couple of minutes. Ana said nothing, just watched me, letting the silence drag on and on as I stood there, shifting from one foot to the other. Maura would say I was hovering on the edge of the Fight or Flight reflex. I'd just admit that I was scared.

Finally I had to say something, no matter how lame it sounded.

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean you're scared Jane. You're afraid that you will lose her aren't you?" Her words and the look she gave me shook me. It was like she was peering inside me, seeing the Jane Rizzoli no one else sees, not even Maura. Fuck, how did I get into this mess?

"Of course not. I love her" Slowly Ana shook her head, a sad expression on her face.

"That's not the problem is it Jane? You're scared she'll leave you, leave you alone. You love her, but you're not sure about her love for you" I dropped back into the chair, stunned, she'd just taken my greatest fear and spoken it out loud. The one thing I couldn't even whisper to myself. I looked away, staring at the floor and started to speak softly.

"Look, I'm a working class stiff from a blue collar background. She's from Boston Brahmin society, wealth, privilege, the best of everything. Hell, her trust funds pay her several times our combined salaries each month. I don't really fit in her life. I sometime wonder when she is going to wake up to the fact that I'm not good enough for her and realise it was all a mistake. Her parents have already made it clear they think it is" I sighed.

"I wonder when she realises that she deserves so much more, someone who will love her and protect her and be worthy of her"

I continued to stare at the ground, in a way it was good to get the fear out there, to name the thing that sometimes woke me in the middle of the night, to stare at Maura's sleeping face and listen to her gentle breathing, terrified that one day she wouldn't be there.

I looked up to see Ana staring at me with an expression I couldn't fathom. I didn't want her pity; I knew this was a mistake. My anger came rushing back, I couldn't sit there, so I stood back up, staring down at her.

"Well, now you know, you happy? What's your problem now?" Ignoring my anger Anastasia just looked at me. Eventually she leaned back, sighing.

"Fuck Jane, are you a complete idiot?" Before I could answer she continued. "That woman lives for you; she needs to be close to you whenever you're in the same room, to touch you. Every time I look at her Maura's watching you, as if you might suddenly vanish in a puff of smoke and she'd lose you if she turned away"

Ana leaned towards me, spreading her hands and speaking softly.

"You are the central part of her life, just like she is to you"

"Of course she is, I love her, more than anything"

"She will no more leave you than you could leave her" I snorted.

"That's easy to say, I nearly got her killed, more than once"

"And she's still here, with you, so that didn't do it"

"I scare her; she's sat in hospital rooms waiting for me to wake up or watched me get patched up in emergency. Hell, she's had to suture me up several times" Ana just shrugged.

"So, she cares for you. Seems pretty natural, she loves you after all"

"Yeah, but I keep scaring her. What if one day she decides it's not worth it. That I'm not worth it."

"She must have known what you were like before you ended up in a relationship. From what I gather you were friends for several years before you become involved. Plenty of time for her to learn what you're like don't you think?" She shrugged.

"Maura knew what you were like before she fell in love with you and fell for you just the same"

I heard her words, but they didn't make any impact, sooner or later Maura would realise that I wasn't good for her, that I only brought her pain. I sighed and sat down again. Looking at Anastasia, I realised that I owed her enough to be honest.

"Ana, I don't know what I would do if she left. She's everything to me. All I know is that if she left me my life would be over"

I realised that I was rubbing my thumbs over my scars, something I do when I'm scared or anxious. I tried to still my hands, to take control of my fears.

"The thought scares the shit out of me, more than death. Death would be quick and painless, Maura leaving would kill me slowly and painfully" I looked up at Ana's face, seeing pain and compassion in those great grey eyes. I suddenly realised that I had tears in my eyes, as it all came tumbling out, like I had built a dam and now it was breeched and everything I was holding in came spilling out.

"We went through a period of several weeks when we weren't talking, after I did something really, really stupid, back before we became… involved. I shot her sperm donor father, who's a mob boss, it fucked up our friendship. I didn't cope very well without her" I remembered back to that horrible time, I'd basically run on auto pilot, I'd stopped living, just existing.

"It scares me Ana, if she left me, I don't think I could cope. I'd just shrivel up and die, it's like she's all the light and sunshine in my life, without her there's no hope"

Ana slowly reached out, taking both of my hands into hers and pulling them apart, her hands felt warm.

"Hey, what you're feeling is stupid even though it feels like the honest and simple truth to you. But I understand, I really do" I looked up at her.

"Jane you're insecure, which is causing you to doubt your worth and making you afraid of the future you want with Maura" I nodded, almost ashamed of how much of a wreck I was. How could I make Maura happy when I was such a broken mess?

"I've been there, I have and I was in the same place you are now" I went to say something but she shushed me.

"Shut up and listen Jane. No just listen for a while" I realised that she was rubbing her thumbs over my scars. I suddenly realised I had only ever let Maura do that, but it felt good, that she cared enough to accept my scars. Most people looked at them and were either repulsed or curious, never just accepting.

"When I first met Natalie, I thought she was beautiful, perfect, sexy as hell and completely unattainable. Hell, you've seen her and that's when she's not even trying to look special" Ana shook her head slowly, looking into the past.

"I'd been in a relationship once before with a woman, a short one, more experimenting than anything else, so this wasn't completely new territory for me, but oh my God. Natalie was so far out of my league that I was terrified of saying the wrong thing and having her walk off. Remember that this was even before we ended up together, when we were just starting out as friends"

"I thought she'd get bored and wander off to chat to someone more interesting and that'd be the end of it" She looked down to where her thumbs were slowly ghosting over the scars on the backs of my hands, outlining the edges and soothing me.

"I couldn't believe it when we ended up together, but I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, when she would get bored and move on to someone else, god knows she gets enough offers, from people who were much better than me"

I knew exactly how she felt, Maura entered a room and everyone noticed without her even trying. People flocked to her, drawn to her like moths to a flame.

Ana took a deep breath and then continued.

"Look, she's not stupid, she knows the effect her looks and personality has on people, you see it all the time when we're out. Like I said, you saw it last night and that was pretty tame" She smiled slowly, obviously remembering something that happened.

"But, she's also told me that while yes, she could have almost anyone she wanted; the only one she wants is me. I couldn't understand what she saw in me, especially when she had not one but two Hollywood stars try and pick her up one night while they were on location in Seattle filming"

"I was there and heard both of them approach her. I didn't know what to do, it was early in our relationship and I was afraid to get to possessive, so I did nothing. She turned them down and we eventually wrapped up and headed home while I tried to pretend everything was fine"

"But she told me later that she heard me crying that night after I thought she had fallen asleep and over the next few days worked out what I was scared of" She stopped massaging the backs of my hands and slowly turned them over, palms up.

I suddenly realised I was feeling calmer, the human contact as she had massaged the scars helping to settle me as she continued to speak softly.

"Jane, don't ever make the mistake of underestimating Natalie. She's no fool, there's a damned good investigative reporter inside her that most people forget about when all they see is that face and body and legs. She put two and two together and worked out what I was scared of, even when I denied it and clammed up when she confronted me" She quietly laughed "As if that was gonna stop her"

As I sat listening, her thumbs started to massage the scars on the palms of my hands, working them in small, gentle circles.

"She turned up at my desk in police headquarters, dragged me out of the office for lunch and sat me down, told me to sit down, shut up and listen, just like I'm doing to you"

"She told me straight up that yes, she had been hit on almost every day since we had met, and not been tempted once. It wasn't that she wasn't interested in the person asking; it was that she had no interest whatsoever in anyone else; she had found the person she had been looking for all her life, me, Anastasia Katarina Romanov"

I didn't believe it, I was a law enforcement puke and she was a goddess, that's how I saw her, beautiful, smart, way too good for me, just like you see Maura. And just as Maura does with you, Natalie brings the light into my world and leaves no room for the shadows in my life" Ana looked up at me, and I could see the hint of tears in her eyes.

"I know, it sounds corny, but she told me that I was the person she immediately felt a connection with and who she was comfortable with, that I was the only person who didn't just see the package, but who saw the person underneath. That we had clicked almost immediately and that she found me as fascinating as I found her"

"She loved me; only me, that she wanted no one else and she really wanted us to grow old together" I was bawling my eyes out by the time she'd finished and she wasn't much better" Ana laughed gently.

"God knows what the restaurant staff must have been thinking"

"Anyway, we walked back to work hand in hand, I'd never really ever been that happy, to know the person I loved more than anything ever in the entire world, loved me the same way. She kissed me and then we went our separate ways back to work" I went to try and speak past the lump in my throat but she held up her hand.

"Let me finish my story before I end up crying. I must have floated back into the office, I was so happy that I couldn't have hidden it even if I'd tried. The people I worked with saw it and some of them gave me no end of grief about it, as there had been some nasty rumors' about our friendship circulating, we weren't an acknowledged couple at that stage" Ana shrugged.

"I'm sure you've experienced some prejudice against you and Maura being together, same as I have. Not everyone's as accepting as they should be" I nodded, remembering some of the comments from people back in Boston, at work and elsewhere.

"I tried to ignore it, just trying to make it through the day till I could see her again, anyway not long after Nat sent me a text to tell me to be home early for dinner and some 'quality time' as she put it. I texted her back and mentioned I was copping grief for being so happy, then went back to the paperwork on my desk"

"Not five minutes later, she absolutely strutted into the office with her coat off and her blouse pulled out loose and half unbuttoned and her hair a little mussed and stalked up to my desk as everything in the room stopped dead" I smiled, I could easily imagine the effect Natalie would have had. Hell, she stopped conversation without trying. Ana saw it and smiled back at me,

"She pushed me back in the chair, straddled my lap and proceeded to put on a monumental demonstration of the hottest necking imaginable for the next 30 seconds. When it was over, she stood up, looked down at me and said 'Thank you my love' loud enough for everyone to hear. She then turned around and looked at everyone in the room" She grinned at me, happily reliving the memory.

"I swear Jane, you could have heard a pin drop; everyone was staring slack mouthed at her. Then she told them that she really hoped that they could find someone who would make them feel one tenth as happy as I made her, because she had never, ever been as happy or content. She bent over, kissed me again and told me to hurry home and to not be late as she had plans for me that meant we weren't getting much sleep that night"

"She then strutted out of there and left me grinning like a fool and every person there either stunned or jealous or both. Word got round quickly after that" I nodded.

"So Natalie deliberately outed herself to prove that you were the one she wanted"

"Yep, she didn't care what anyone thought, didn't care about the repercussions, she wanted it known that I was hers and she belonged to me. That night she proceeded to leave several very visible bite marks and hickeys to reinforce the message" She shrugged again.

"After that, well the gossip pretty much dried up, everyone knew and Nat had made it very clear she didn't give a damn what people thought, in fact she was very open about that very fact"

I nodded slowly.

"So what you're saying is that Maura and I should be open about each other?"

"Only if you're comfortable with that; it worked for us, but you two are different people, so it's what works for you" I looked at her, raising an eyebrow, not following her.

"So what are you saying we should do?"

"Nothing, at least about making your relationship public; whatever you do Nat and I will support you" She held up her hand.

"On the other hand, I will tell you exactly what you should do about your insecurity about Maura. Do what I should have done in the first place, and talk to her about it. Explain to her what's bothering you and really talk to her"

"I'm not sure I can" A flash of irritation crossed her face.

"Oh for fucks sake Jane! If it takes you having to open up and let her see you're vulnerable; see your real insecurities, to ensure that you and Maura are together forever, what in hell are you waiting for? Isn't Maura worth fighting for?"

"Of course she is"

"Then fight your fears and your demons for her, tell her what she needs to know, why you feel the way you do and why you can't live without her" I nodded dubiously as she continued.

"Maura loves you, it's obvious to everyone and you love her, that's equally obvious. But if you go through life waiting for her to leave, then you will never give her everything that she deserves to have. And that will cause you and her untold pain, which may well tear you apart"

"Look Jane, people comment on how happy I am, how comfortable Nat and I are together and it's true, we are" I nodded, they were like people who had lived together for decades as a couple, both completely at ease with one another.

"Well, we weren't always like that. It took a close shave to bring life into perspective" I frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"I was working a case, involving an interstate sex slave ring. Girls kidnapped from one part of the US and shipped to other states to work in brothels or to be sold to the worst kind of lowlife scum" I nodded, I had heard of similar cases over the years.

"We'd got a tip off from Las Vegas police; they had tracked the girl's movements to a number of interstate truckers shipping them from place to place. They were working with New York and Miami police to try and track shipments when one particular truck was tracked on its way to Seattle. I remember talking to the guy from Las Vegas, it was weird, it seemed the case was really being run by the lead CSI down there" She shifted in her seat, but kept ahold of my hands.

"Anyway, I was part of the team who moved in as the handover was made. We got the trucker and freed the girl, but the buyer ran and we went after him. I almost lost him in an old warehouse and when I looked around I had lost my backup" I could clearly see it happening; hell it had happened to me more than once.

"I wasn't going to lose him and chased him around a container, where he was waiting. He had a knife and used it" She let my hands go and reached down, pulling her polo shirt out of her jeans. I shook my head.

"You don't have to do this Ana" I knew how hard it was to let people see the scars, to know how badly you had been mutilated, been broken.

"Yeah, I do, it's ok" Pulling the shirt up, I could see two nasty inch and a half long scars, one beneath her left breast, the other lower and more in the centre of her torso above the belly button.

"Shit Ana…" She nodded as she pulled the shirt back down.

"Yeah, Bowie knife, the fucker wanted to make sure of it, unfortunately for him, I hung onto my gun long enough to punch two shots through his ugly face" She shrugged. "The sound of the shots brought help and they managed to hold me together long enough for the EMTs to get me stabilised and transported to hospital" I nodded, knowing all about that particular journey.

"From what I've heard, you've been there, several times" I looked up surprised.

"You do read minds" She smiled.

"Once I came out of theatre and woke up the first thing I saw was Natalie, sound asleep, but holding my hand" She smiled softly. "I'd been unconscious for almost 48 hours but she hadn't moved since I'd come out of surgery"

"You know Jane, the pain when I'd been stabbed was like nothing I'd ever experienced, but the pain when I realised what I had almost lost was far worse" I nodded, Maura had been there when I woke up after having that bullet go through me and I remember the look on her face as she told me I'd almost died on the table.

"Natalie was there every day. I was in ICU for two weeks while they dealt with a few nasty infections courtesy of the bastard's knife; he hadn't been particularly bothered about keeping it clean. Then she took time off to nurse me once I was released" I smiled, Maura had looked after me the same way.

"We'd been together for just over a year and it was the first time she'd seen me hurt. I'd never been that badly hurt before, the usual minor injuries you tend to collect doing the job, but nothing life threatening. Anyway, once I was well on the way to being healed, Natalie had a bit of a breakdown, she'd been keeping everything bottled in and being strong for me and finally it got to her" Ana stared off into the distance, obviously the memories were still painful.

"Once she calmed down we had a very unpleasant conversation" She came back from wherever she had been staring as and focused those great grey eyes firmly on mine.

"She told me I was responsible for not one but two lives, because she had got a taste of what hell would be like, waiting for me to live or die. She also told me that if I died, she might survive, but she would be dead inside and would probably not outlive me by much" She shrugged.

"I know it sounds melodramatic Jane, but Natalie is full of life and emotion and love, all of which she willingly pours into me. I'm her anchor; I keep her grounded and safe. I don't doubt her for a moment that without me there to give it all back to her she would probably want to die. She might be physically alive, but emotionally she'd be a zombie"

I nodded slowly, thinking back to the toll the Marino shooting had taken on Maura. She told me later that it was during that time that she truly realised how much she loved me.

"When I was shot, Maura was there for me right throughout that entire mess. The signs were there but I was too messed up to see them but she was the reason I had to live and recover. If I hadn't I wouldn't have realised how lucky I am to have her now" A smile broke out on Ana's face.

"Exactly, Natalie made me promise to think first; then act. To always remember that she was there with me and that I was responsible for both our lives. I've done that ever since" I nodded, understanding what she was saying completely. Maura needed me the way I needed her and I owed it to her to tell her that. She deserved nothing less.

"I need to talk to her"

"Yes you do" I sighed, not looking forward to a very difficult conversation with Maura. Ana leaned in and grabbed both of my hands in hers.

"We're both unbelievably fortunate Jane. We love extraordinary women who love us in return. They deserve our complete trust and honesty, we owe it to them. You owe it to Maura" I looked at our hands, then up into her eyes.

"It's not going to be easy" She smiled at me.

"Nothing truly important ever is"


	28. Chapter 28

**Maura and Natalie go shopping**

Maura's viewpoint

As we settled in the car for the ride downtown Natalie looked around in delight.

"I love your car, the leather smells divine" I smiled fondly.

"Yes, my baby's only four month's old and I didn't want it locked away for six months in Boston, so I had it shipped out when we relocated" I saw Natalie snuggle back into the seat, which I had to say were one of the main reasons I bought the SLK, they were so soft, but held and supported you so well.

"Driving her is one of my vices, I got hooked on driving fast cars after I got Jane race driver lessons for her birthday, she insisted that I accompany her and I found I liked it" To be honest, I liked the feeling of control, the speed and doing something physical very well.

As I pulled up at the first set of lights, I flipped a switch and the roof folded back.

"That's something I do like about LA, you can't do that in Boston for most of the year" Natalie laughed happily.

"I know what you mean; I have an old red MGB and couldn't get the top down very often in Seattle. Here, it's practically mandatory"

"Well, it would be a shame to let the sunshine go to waste" She smiled lazily as we made our way downtown.

"You do know we're practically a LA cliché" I frowned, not following her.

"In what way exactly?" She laughed happily.

"Two hot blondes in a convertible heading out shopping" I smiled, finding her happiness infectious. She was so different from Jane who could be all dark and intensity. Come to think of it, that also described Ana as well. Natalie by comparison shone with life; it was like she was so happy that she glowed most of the time.

"Well, the next cliché would be having us pulled over by a highway patrol officer who would flirt with us as we tried to get off from a ticket" She giggled, obviously smitten by the image.

"Well, in our case we could probably flash our IDs and he'd back off, but it makes a nice image" Her voice changed, getting very breathy. "We're so sorry officer; couldn't you just let us go with a warning, please? I promise we won't do it again, we'll be good, very good" I giggled.

"No need to flirt, we could just tell Jane or Ana, they would probably threaten to castrate him if they thought he was hitting on us" Natalie cackled with laughter at the thought and I couldn't help myself, joining in. When we finally settled down she nodded.

"They are very protective aren't they?" I smiled, remembering Jane's intensity.

"Yes they are; it's nice though"

"I used to hate it when guys got all macho and protective. Don't get me wrong, I like feeling protected, but most guys want to lock you up away from anything. But it's different with Ana, it's…special" I glanced over to see a slow smile form.

"I know, in prior relationships I was often the odd one out. Men either wanted to wrap me in cotton wool or couldn't handle that I was 'different', it usually ended badly"

"Different?" Natalie interrupted. "How so" I paused as I changed lanes, I was still getting used to the chaotic LA traffic, before I replied.

"I wasn't that good in social settings; I missed out on a lot of that at boarding school. I often made mistakes and misinterpreted the actions of others. Many men found that they couldn't handle my job, my financial independence or my family's social status so I spent a lot of time alone, before I met Jane"

"Their loss, your gain, I've watched you and Jane, you're a great fit together" I smiled.

"Jane just accepts me for who I am, although that doesn't stop her teasing me"

"It never does. Ana gives me no end of grief too" I pulled up at a red light and waited for it to change, when I heard a long, low wolf whistle, looking over I saw an old Mustang had pulled up and two young men smiling at us.

"Hey lovely ladies, we're out for the day, want to hang out together" I was about to say something when Nat held up her left hand and wiggled the ring there, looking over the top of her sunglasses at them.

"Sorry boys, but we're both taken. Thanks anyway" They looked disappointed, before waving and laughing as the lights changed and we moved on. Natalie snickered before turning to me.

"And that Maura; is why I wear a ring, it's a great escape from sticky situations. You should think about it"

I bit my lip; I hadn't thought about exchanging rings with Jane, I'd like to, but was it too early? How would it look? What would Jane think? Suddenly I felt Natalie's hand on mine where it sat on the gear stick.

"Hey Maura, you ok? I lost you for a moment" I smiled to cover my uncertainty.

"Sorry, I was just thinking about what you said"

"It's ok; it'll happen in when it happens. We didn't exchange rings until our first anniversary" I frowned, our first anniversary as a couple was coming up.

"How did you approach it, the ring issue?"

"We were out shopping one day and I stopped in front of a jeweller and told her if she liked it then she should put a ring on it" I laughed, pleased at getting the reference to one of my favourite singers.

"Had you planned it that way?" She laughed out loud.

"Shit yes! I'd been looking at jewellers for weeks before finding rings I liked. I made sure that the shop had the rings I wanted in the window that morning, so that I could point them out. Fortunately Ana liked them too and that was that"

I pursed my lips, wondering if that would work for Jane. I felt a bit uncertain; she might find it too much, too soon. Obviously reading my mind Natalie spoke again.

"Hey, don't worry about it. It'll happen in its own time" She paused, obviously thinking about it.

"Hey, if it helps I can arrange to find out how Jane feels about it. Either Ana or I can bring our rings up in casual conversation and hear her thoughts". I glanced over at her before returning my eyes to the road.

"I don't want Jane to feel railroaded; she needs to take her time to get used to the idea"

"Ha, if she's anything like Ana, she'll love the idea and be out looking in windows before you know it"

"Well, Jane can be… a little impulsive, at times"

"You sure you're not talking about Ana here. The more time I spend around those two the more alike they seem" I nodded.

"I had noticed a certain similarity in outlook. I hope that Anastasia takes better care of herself than Jane has in the past. Heaven's knows Jane's never been one for being careful"

"Yeah, Ana's had some close calls in the time I have known her. I've ended up sitting around in the hospital emergency rooms more times than I care to remember. Nothing like as bad as Jane though thank God; your girl's one tough cookie" She paused for a moment, eyeing me.

"Have you had that conversation with her?"

"What conversation?"

"The one where you point out that she is now responsible for two lives not one, that she needs to think of what she is doing, what she's doing to you every time you get the phone call telling you to get to the hospital quickly?" I thought for a moment then shook my head.

"No. I haven't wanted to do that. Jane is who she is and I didn't want to try and restrict that. She might resent it and me" I'd always been scared that Jane would feel I was trying to change her, make her something she wasn't.

"What? Maura, are you kidding me?" I looked across at Natalie; she had a stunned expression on her face.

"What do you mean?"

"Jane would do anything you asked, anything to please you, hell, you told me she climbs into heels and dresses to make you smile, she would do absolutely anything you asked"

"I couldn't as her to do that; I couldn't take advantage of her like that"

"Maura, that woman worships the ground you walk on. You are the single most important thing in her universe. She loves you more than life itself. Hell, she would step in front of a bullet to protect you. Both Ana and I saw that almost right away. You can see that protective streak a mile away, if you're looking" I nodded slowly, Natalie was right.

"So making her understand that she is equally as important to you, and that she needs to take care so that you have each other for the rest of your lives is the most important thing in the world" She pulled down her sunglasses down her nose to look over them at me.

"Ana and I had that conversation after she almost died. It was hard, damned hard, but losing her would be unbearable"

I thought back to that terrible day when Jane shot through herself to get Bobby Marino. It had been the worst day of my life; Jane told me later that she did it because as long as Marino held her hostage, help couldn't get to her brother Frankie and I.

I almost lost her that day, I spent long days sitting by her bedside, waiting for her to come out of a coma, desperately afraid that she wouldn't. It was during that horrible time that I realised that I loved her, that she was a part of my life and I needed her in it.

Natalie's hand slid over mine on the wheel, where I was clutching it in a white-knuckled grip.

"Maura, please, I'm sorry. Please, pull over. Stop. Please". Her voice was pleading with me. I looked across to her to see the anguish plainly visible on her face. I pulled the car over to a stop.

"Oh Maura, I'm so sorry, you went away to somewhere that was terrible, I could see it. I'm so sorry" I could see the tears in her eyes. I nodded slowly, feeling the tears forming in my eyes as well.

"I nearly lost her you know and she did it for me" Natalie rubbed her hand over mine, offering warmth and comfort.

"Of course she did. And Jane would do it again in a heartbeat if she had to, to protect you" I nodded, knowing she was right. "And you would do the same"

"I'm not brave like her, I don't have her courage" Her brave, impulsive, stupid courage.

"Of course you do honey, if you had to" She leaned over and wrapped her arms around me, holding me as she rubbed her hands soothingly on my back. My hands fluttered helplessly for a moment, before I found myself hugging her back.

"It's OK. It's OK" I heard her whispering the words over and over and then I heard a gentle laugh.

"It's a good thing Jane can't see me now, I think she'd kill me for making you cry" I smiled and pulled back a little to see Natalie smiling gently "Or for hugging her girlfriend"

"No she wouldn't. I wouldn't let her"

"Well that's a relief; it saves you having to explain that to Ana. I don't think she'd take it well" I smiled gently at her.

"Damn Maura, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring up bad memories. It's just that well, I really care for you, so does Ana and I don't want you hurt like that again". I was about to reply when I noticed several people were watching us. I suppose I couldn't blame them, two women crying in a sports car by the side of the street.

"I think we have an audience watching" Natalie glanced around then turned back to me

"Fuck 'em. I don't care"

"Well I do, we should head on" She nodded and I put the car in gear and pulled back out into the traffic.

"OK, but we need to talk about this again. It's too important not to" In a blatantly obvious change of subject, she continued. "So which shops do you particularly want to see on Rodeo Drive?"

"Well, I was thinking shoes, so Jimmy Choo's and Cavalli's, plus Valentino's. I still want to look for something for the Ball. What about you?

"I have a dress already but I'm always up for something new; however I'd like to look for jewellery, a necklace and earrings set if possible" I nodded.

"Do you have anything in particular in mind?"

"Mmm, sapphires are nice. Ana keeps saying that blue suits me" I nodded,

"She's right, they match your eyes. What colour dress are you wearing? Something blue would look good too"

"No, I normally wear black for these sorts of occasions" I frowned.

"Really, I understand that black is classic, but it's not like you to go for dark tones normally, why so for this?" I saw her shrug.

"Well, I am getting Ana into a gown, which she does as a favour to me. I figure that by dressing in black and letting her wear a bright colour the attention is all on her. She really is stunning, even if she doesn't normally dress to highlight it" I smiled.

"That's sweet. What colour is she wearing?"

"I'm not sure; she has a red vintage Vera Wang, plus a classic white Alexander McQueen that she totally rocks. Sometimes she surprises me on the night, pulling out something I haven't seen before, so I just can't say. What about you and Jane?"

"Well, as I said I'm still looking, although I have a green Versace that Jane loves to see me in. I have a few others as well. Jane has a red Donna Karan gown I convinced her to buy last year, but I hadn't thought about getting her into white, that would look nice"

"What's her best feature?" I smiled, where do I start?

"Well, I think they're all good…" I heard Natalie laughing.

"So I can see from the look on your face…" She smiled. "…but what do most people not see?" I thought for a moment.

"Her legs, she has the most amazingly long, strong legs". Nat laughed.

"Really; that good?" I nodded.

"I've seen good legs, hers are exceptional, if I do say so myself" Natalie laughed happily.

"Damn, now I want to see them. You have to get her into something that shows them off, something with a split"

"Well, we will have to see what we can find then, won't we"

"Lead on Maura, lead on"


	29. Chapter 29

**A/N** I've been asked to give a better idea of what Natalie and Anastasia look like. I indeed have two beautiful muses who inspire me, so I thought I should post their images.

I am trying to find a way to post images of these two women; however this site's software is corrupting the addresses of the images on Photobucket.

If you make your way to Photobucket and search for Unicornff, you will be taken to my album which contains images of both Natalie and Anastasia.

I hope this helps my reader's enjoyment of the story.

**Dancing down Rodeo Drive Part 1**

Natalie's viewpoint

Wandering along Rodeo Drive was like a kid in a candy store for Maura, I swear that woman was born to shop.

We expected that Ana and Jane would be at the range for a few hours, bonding over firearms and then heading home for a few beers. Maura and I had agreed that today was a bonding day for us as well, only over something so much more fun than gun smoke and beer.

We were going to shop all morning, pausing for a coffee, do some more shopping, then have lunch somewhere here, before some more shopping and heading home, where we could console Jane and Ana on the wonderful day they missed.

Ha! As if.

I could see the synchronised eye rolling already. Ah well, Maura and I could enjoy it without having the girls getting restless and whinging.

Several hours later I had come to the conclusion that Maura found shopping only slightly less desirable than Jane. Not that I could blame her, she had a figure that was made to be wrapped up in a glamorous dress and strut in beautiful shoes.

I'd got an eyeful of her figure when we ended up stripping down to underwear in changing rooms, after the second or third shop it didn't bother either of us. In fact it didn't slow down the conversation either.

She was wearing a strapless bra and boy short briefs, which meant it was easier to try on strapless and off the shoulder dresses. After she skimmed out of her linen slacks and blouse the first time I paused to look her up and down. Impressed I gave a low whistle, causing her to look up in surprise.

"You have a lovely figure Maura, no wonder Jane follows you round like a lovesick puppy" She blushed slightly, while watching me slide out of my sundress.

"Thank you, although I wish my legs were longer. I always wanted to be a bit taller, more your height" I looked over my shoulder at her, quirking an eyebrow at her.

"I wouldn't recommend it. Getting nice clothes that fit you at my height can be a problem, especially if you're not built like an anorexic catwalk model, all leg and no curves" I smiled. "Somehow I doubt Jane would want you to lose those curves either" Maura smiled.

"Well, she is rather fond of them, even though she describes herself as a beanpole" I frowned.

"She's tall, with long legs, but I don't recall her being too thin"

"I quite like her shape, she has an athletic build I find rather appealing, but she would probably prefer to have a more statuesque figure" She shrugged. "I find that from what I've observed, most women wish for a shape that they don't possess, or attributes that they don't have"

I paused from where I was pulling on a beautiful crimson gown that I really couldn't afford, but wasn't that part of the fun of going shopping with friends?

"True, you want to be taller, Jane wants more curves, I really wanted deep green eyes and Ana wants to be taller too"

"Why would you to change your eye colour? Your eyes are a quite striking blue?" I shrugged, trying to pull up the zipper. Maura stepped up and drew it up my back.

"Thanks for that. I don't know; blondes with blue eyes are such a cliché, half the blondes you see with them are wearing contacts anyway. I think this is a bit too tight, don't you?" She made a turnaround motion with her hand, scrutinising me as I did.

"It doesn't sit right on your upper torso. The length is fine and it is a lovely colour, but it's not sitting right up here" She patted her chest. "Why green, besides the fact that it is one of the rarest eye colours?" I turned back to let her slide the zip down.

"Thank you. I always thought green was striking and exotic and something I associated with redheads. Redheads always stand out in a crowd, blondes are a dime a dozen. I didn't know it was the rarest, just different." Maura stepped into a golden sheath dress and pulled it up and on, zipping it tight at the side, wrapping her tightly, with a line that dipped low down over her breasts, emphasising her cleavage.

"Green is the rarest of the common colours, blue is also quite rare, only about 1% of the population have blue eyes. So for most of the rest of us blue is pretty exotic"

I nodded, watching the dress mould to her.

"Mmm, nice" She glanced up.

"Thank you, but I'm not sure about the colour. I like the cut but metallic colours can seem a little brash, you know, a bit too try hard" I grimaced.

"I don't think the first thought that would come into Janes mind if she saw you in that was that you were trying too hard" I observed. "The first thought would be getting you out of it, soon; the second would be stopping anyone else seeing you in it" Maura smiled gently.

"I believe that would be mission accomplished?" I laughed at her playful tone.

"Maura, you could wear a brown paper bag and Jane's first thought would be the same" We shared a smile. I considered the colour of her dress.

"Seriously, the only problem I have with metallic's is they're usually light colours and the blonde hair tends to get lost on it, I think it works better on a brunette, same as whites and creams do"

She shimmied out of the sheath, which was a distracting sight, I was Ana's but that didn't mean I was completely immune to Maura's beauty. I took a deep blue backless gown off its hangar and stepped into it.

"Why on earth did you want to be a redhead? Surely you attract enough attention already from what I've witnessed" I turned to face her as I settled the gown on.

"When I was a kid, I was gawky and all arms and legs and nothing to look at. I really didn't start to look good and feel good about myself until I was in my late teens. I wanted to stand out and I thought redheads were exotic" I shrugged. "Now I'd settle for green eyes, really deep green are lovely" I turned to look in the mirror. "What do you think?"

"Nice dress, but it's not sitting quite right, I think the back should have been cut lower" I frowned, looking at the reflection, she was right; it should have been cut a lot deeper. Preferably down to just above my ass, this was too high and looked like it couldn't make up its mind. I slipped the straps off and stepped out of it.

"Anyway, why do you want to be taller? You're the perfect height to fit into Jane"

She finished slipping into a deeply bias cut pale crimson gown before looking up at me, making a non-committal gesture.

"I would like to be able to look Jane in the eyes and be the same height when we kiss, rather than having her bend down to me" She looked a little embarrassed.

"I'm sure Jane loves you precisely the way you are, she's very protective of you, and having to tilt her head down a little is no great burden. Besides, we're all the same height lying down" She settled the dress, smoothing it across her stomach. We both studied her reflection in the mirror for a moment, before both shaking our heads. It really didn't do anything special for her. She started stripping it off again as I continued the conversation.

"I can understand though, Ana would like to be taller for the same reason, but it doesn't bother me in the slightest" We got dressed into our own clothes, handing the dresses back to the woman in the shop, before wandering a few doors down into another boutique.

The conversation continued on through several stores, meandering along much as we were. We stopped for a coffee and split a blueberry bagel, before continuing on.

We were standing in one shop when my eye fell on an electric blue evening gown, the colour naturally drew your eye and I could see myself in it. I flipped through, looking for the right size, it looked lovely and I could really see myself wearing it out. I do like blue, though I normally wear darker blues. Finding the right size I turned to find Maura was holding a lovely black gown and looking at my choice.

"Ooh, nice colour, you will look good in blue" I smiled.

"Thanks" Two minutes later we stood side by side, admiring each other. Hers was a mermaid design, all satin below the waist and a delicate lace and beading corset style above, It made her look even more lovely, her hair cascading across her bare shoulders. It didn't fit exactly right at the waist, needing to be taken in a fraction, but it looked very good.

The blue number I had on had a single shoulder strap, was gathered in at the waist with a silver piping detail running from the breasts to the start of a centre split, it was lovely, really it was, but I really couldn't afford the $3,000 price. Still, half the fun of shopping was trying on things you weren't going to buy. Maura was looking at me.

"What do you think?" I looked a little wistful.

"It's lovely, but I can't really justify it for a single wear. It is nice though. What's your opinion?" She looked around.

"Where are your heels? Ah, there they are" Handing them to me she continued. "Put these on, I'd like to see you walking in it" I slipped the three inch heels on and walked back and forward in front of her. She nodded.

"It works with your height, you have nice legs and the cut shows that off. The colours nice but… I don't know, I think you could do better" I rolled my eyes.

"I don't think Mr McQueen would like hearing you say that" She smiled. "Let's have a look at you" She did look lovely, the corset finish emphasised her nice breasts, drawing the eye to them. "Hold still Maura" I walked over and stepped right into her personal space, close enough for our bodies to almost touch and looked down. Maura looked up at me with a curious expression. Stepping back, I sighed.

"Jane will absolutely love it, as she looks down while she's dancing with you all she'll see is your face and an eyeful of your tits. Don't be surprised if she trips or steps on your feet cause she won't be looking where she's going" Her laugh was swift and rich.

I noticed a salesperson looking in but she disappeared at a look. Catching the interaction Maura looked over at me and raised an eyebrow. I shrugged and she smiled.

"So this one gets your approval?" I nodded.

"Best I've seen so far, but the day is still young" Nodding, she twirled again in front of the mirror before stripping it off.

The rest of the morning was a round of gowns and dresses and labels, between us we must have tried on a good quarter of a million dollars of dresses, not hard when even the cheapest ones were over a thousand dollars. I hadn't found anything that I liked enough to damage my credit card for, but Maura had a stunning Valentino lilac gown that while not completely to my taste, certainly looked great on her. Mind you, most things did.

We had stopped in to several jewellers, checking out sapphires, sapphires and diamonds, sapphires and rubies, sapphires and emeralds. Practically every combination you could think of. Finally we agreed I should ask Ana what colour she was wearing and team the second stone with her dress, that way we would be a match even if I wore black.

As we were walking out, I noticed a set of jewellery in their own special case, the flashing colours caught my eye and I detoured over. What I was looking at was a collection of unusual stones.

Calling Maura over we oohed and aahed over them before the store manager, a stylishly turned out woman in her late fifties or early sixties joined us.

"Do you like them?" I nodded.

"They're lovely, I've never seen stones like these before" She smiled.

"I went to a show recently, the Aussies here in LA get together with the Australian Government to put on an introduction to all things Australian. Nicole Kidman is an occasional customer here and suggested there were things there I would find interesting" She shrugged. "Who was I to say no to a customer, so I went, expecting to find clothes and holiday ideas and such, but they had a collection of their jewellery, I liked it so much that I ordered some of it, and these are the first samples"

Unlocking the cabinet, the manager brought out a set of stones in gold settings, burning with colour.

"These are Australian opals; the majority of opals come from there, some 95% or more. They come in a range of colours as you can see, but the black opals are the most sought after" I looked at the stones and was transfixed by the colours flaring in the overhead lights. Maura reached out and picked up a set of gold drop earrings with flashing red and green opal stones.

"These are beautiful, I love the colours. What do you think Natalie" I tipped my head considering them, I wasn't sure. I reached out and picked up one and held it to her ear.

"I don't know Maura" She laughed and pulled it from my hand.

"Not for me, for Jane"

"Ah sorry, yes, I could see her in those; they'd look good against her dark hair and olive skin"

"That's' what I thought" Frowning, she placed them back on the table, picking up a set of small loop earrings with green and blue flecked opals set in them in an intricate setting.

"These are really nice, I could see you wearing these" I took them from her and wandered over to a mirror, admiring them as they glowed in the light. I'd never seen opal before and these were truly lovely, I really could see myself wearing them too.

A shame they were probably going to be far more than I could afford. Sighing I turned back and braced myself for the bad news.

"They are really nice, how much?"

Looking at me the manager smiled as she spoke.

"$425, as is" Both of us must have worn stunned expressions, as she smiled even wider.

"I get that reaction a lot; it's remarkably low priced given the beauty of the opal. I was surprised but wasn't going to argue with the supplier. I expect to sell out of it once word gets around"

I looked at Maura and we shared a slowly widening smile.

10 minutes later we walked out, I had my earrings, Maura had the set for Jane and we'd agreed that a stunning jet and opal inlay link necklace and matching earrings looked too good against her pale skin to be left behind; all up we'd spent less than $2,000 and were very, very happy with our prizes.

Lunch at a café followed, where we had a light meal, with Maura reminding me that while Ana wasn't here to keep an eye on my choice, I would be paying for the excess later. Sighing at her gentle nagging I went with a Thai beef salad, which turned out to be fine. Maura had a leaf salad with croutons which looked a little too healthy for my tastes.

"You didn't see any opal that would suit Anastasia?" I shook my head.

"No, she's not really a stone person; she prefers the clean look of plain metal. In fact the only stone she wears is her ring" Maura raised an eyebrow in surprise. "I know, I'd love to put her in diamonds and emerald and rubies, it'd look great against her skin, but she's not really interested. Most of her dress jewellery is yellow gold, silver or white gold"

"A shame, I agree. She is a lovely woman and you want to make her as beautiful as you can" She smiled fondly. "That's why I don't really feel bad about coaxing Jane into dresses and heels and jewels, no matter how much she complains. I love how stunning and feminine she is when she's in makeup, her hair done up, dressed in a gorgeous gown and looking beautiful" I smiled at the thought.

"It's the same with me and Ana. I try, I buy her tailored pants suits rather than the off the rack suits she used to wear, but she doesn't wear the matching skirts that come as part of the suit as much as I would like" I sighed. "Ana has lovely legs, I love seeing them under a short skirt, balanced on a set of stilettoes, doing very nice things to her legs definition…"

I found myself remembering the last night out in Seattle, clubbing in short cocktail dresses and heels, feeling her thigh sliding between mine, me backed up against a wall, running my hands up under the skirt, lost in her kisses, unconsciously I licked my lips.

Maura's giggle brought me back to earth, a little embarrassed.

"That must have been a very nice memory Natalie. You went from calm to aroused in about two seconds" I felt my face flushing in shame.

"Sorry" I mumbled, getting a further round of giggles from her. When she subsided she smiled.

"What were you thinking of, if it wasn't too X-rated?" I smiled.

"The last night we went out clubbing, in Seattle a week before we moved here. We both love dancing and it gives us an excuse to dress in heels and short skirts and be completely uninhibited on the dance floor. There's a women's-only club up there that has a pumping DJ in residence, we get pretty wild on the dance floor and well, things got even wilder later after a night of build-up" She smiled a little wistfully.

"That sounds like lots of fun, Jane is an excellent dancer and I'm reasonably skilled. We didn't go out dancing all that often back in Boston, given Jane's initial reserve in being seen by her colleagues. When we did however we had a great time"

"Ana used to be pretty uptight about showing skin and being out there with me, but I wore her down over time" I shrugged. "She's beautiful and I like to look at her when she's done up. In fact she's now so comfortable that the club's management threatened to throw a bucket over us one night when she dressed in some pretty skimpy club wear, I couldn't keep my hands off her"

"I'd like to think that we could coax Jane out to the clubs here, it's not like we would meet anyone who knew us before we became a couple here" Maura looked pensive. "Would you and Ana come out dancing with us. I mean if you don't mind" She looked adorable when she was being bashful. I laughed happily.

"Maura, you don't have to be so worried about it, of course we'd love to, any excuse to get Ana into something skimpy works for me. We just have to make sure Jane doesn't get cold feet but with Ana's help we should be fine" She smiled happily.

"That would be so much fun. When she lets go she's a different person, she stops being Detective Rizzoli and is just Jane, who is the person I love most"

"Well, I'll do some research on where we can go, there's bound to be a few girls-only clubs here. Then comes the fun part" I winked at Maura, seeing her amused scepticism.

"And that is…?"

"We get to go shopping for what we're going to dress Jane and Ana in, something that involves short skirts, high heels, tight tops and lots of skin" Maura looked a little pensive.

Jane will be very uncomfortable dressed like that" I smiled.

"I have every faith in your ability to get her to see it our way Maura and besides, she won't have time to complain, she'll be too busy staring at what you'll be wearing and trying not to drool" Maura gave me that tilted head look she does when she's curious.

"And what might that be?"

"Something very short, very tight and very, very scandalous; I expect there's not a lot of that in your wardrobe Maura, but don't worry, I have some ideas"

"I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing Natalie"

"Of course it's a good thing. I can't wait to show you what I have in mind"

"I'm starting to think I should be worried"


	30. Chapter 30

******A/N** Just a reiteration, these characters and their rights belong to their respective, incredibly talented creators, as realised by the wonderful actors who bring them alive for our enjoyment. No copyright infringement is intended, but thank you for letting us work our own personal stories with them.

**Dancing down Rodeo Drive Part 2**

Maura's viewpoint

After lunch we headed out and made our way to the Two Rodeo shopping centre. It was the home of a number of quality retailers, in particular Versace and one of my favourites, Jimmy Choo.

I was really enjoying the day, Natalie was wonderful company; finally I had someone to go shopping with who liked it as much as I did. By this time, if she'd lasted this long, Jane would have been complaining and fidgeting and finding excuses to head off, but Natalie was happily strolling along with me, window shopping, browsing and trying things on.

We'd been to this shopping centre before, when we dragged both Anastasia and Jane here to visit the Agent Provocateur store and try on some lovely lingerie, I'd more than enjoyed that afternoon, wrapping Jane in satin and silk and lace and seeing her so feminine was one of my all-time favourite things, only bettered by getting to unwrap her in private.

As we strolled past the store, Natalie glanced in and looked back at me, a sly smile playing on her face.

"And what might that smile be for Ms Dearing" She smiled even wider.

"I'm remembering that day and what we bought. Ana looked lovely in that black lace corset, I love seeing her wear it, especially that day I asked her to wear it to work" I looked across at her in surprise.

"She did, when?" Natalie smiled an evil smile.

To last Thursday's senior officers meeting, I told her that her wearing it under her suit, with me knowing it was under there was an incredible turn on for me" I smiled, imagining trying to convince Jane to do that. Never happen.

"And she agreed to that?" Natalie shrugged gently.

"I told her that if she did, I'd make it worth her while, that I'd be very, very good to her that night as a thank you. She was so agreeable that she wore that suit's skirt as opposed to the pants she usually wears. I told her I liked the access it provided"

"Oh, that is naughty. So you sat there and imagined her…"

"Yep, it was torture all through the meeting and lunch later, by the time we got home I was so worked up I practically assaulted her against the back of the front door. We wound up in bed and had to get home delivery for dinner as neither of us felt like cooking"

I nodded slowly, wondering if I could convince Jane… Sadly I came to the conclusion she wouldn't agree, still too afraid of being feminine, even though only we two would know. It looked like it would only happen on what Jane likes to call our 'girly' nights.

"How did that fire engine red satin basque you were talking about work out?" I smiled rather sadly.

"I haven't had an occasion to convince her to wear it yet, perhaps the LAPD Ball might be a good chance" Natalie shook her head sadly.

"That's a shame; she'd look lovely, what's the problem?" I felt uncomfortable but I had to defend Jane's choices.

"You have to understand that Jane was the youngest female detective in Boston PD history, plus the first female Homicide detective. She always had to struggle to be accepted, to fit in. To do so she had to be better than the men just to be to be one of the boy's" Natalie nodded in understanding.

"In addition, she grew up with two brothers and had always been a tomboy, so she never really grew up feeling like a girl, being feminine, at best she was androgynous. Once she became a detective, she wanted to be seen as a detective, not as a beautiful woman, for fear of others either thinking she used her looks to get her job or being the object of others amorous attentions" Natalie laughed as we walked towards the welcoming site of Jimmy Choo's.

"Fat chance of that, she's striking and people notice her the moment she walks into a room. Mind you, I understand what you're saying. Ana has some of the same fears. She was afraid people would judge her as a woman, not as an agent" I pursed my lips at the foolishness of some people.

"It's a shame, however we cannot change things, we just have to deal with them as they are"

Wandering into Jimmy Choo's, I smiled at the oh so exquisite shoes on display, I love beautiful shoes, even if Jane swears I could pay off the national debt for the value of my collection.

I had been browsing their website and knew exactly what I was looking for, the Lauren pump, all metallic and flashing jewels. I thought it would be perfect for the Ball and wanted Natalie's opinion. She dresses well, even if her work attire is more corporate than I would choose and she always looks good.

Mind you, with her looks and figure that wasn't that hard. I had spent some time checking her out while we had been trying on dresses and I was firmly of the opinion that Anastasia was a very lucky woman. Natalie had a lovely slim figure, long legs that were almost as good as Jane's and a bosom that, while not quite as large as mine, was certainly enticing.

When you added her thick blonde hair and stunning looks, she was quite the prize. Best of all, she was my friend and I counted myself very lucky to have her be so.

The sales person wandered over, taking us in, probably thinking we were just looking, until she spotted the heels I was wearing and realised they were Vamp strap sandals from the current collection. The change in her demeanour was quite amusing, as she stepped forward with a bright smile.

"Ladies, can I help you?"

"Yes please, I would like to look at a pump, the Lauren design, in a size six" As she scurried away, Natalie leaned in to me.

"Maura am I mistaken or is that Sharon Raydor sitting over there trying on shoes, the brunette facing away from us?" I looked up, scanning the room before settling on a set of auburn locks.

"I can't tell from this angle, if she looks up…" Suddenly the woman's head came up, smiling as an assistant handed her a fuchsia pump with the most amazing detail and what must have been a four or five inch heel; it was Sharon.

""It is, should we say hello?" Natalie flashed me a quick smile, before striding over as I followed.

"If you step on someone with that heel Sharon Raydor, I'm sure FID will have to investigate an assault with a deadly weapon" Sharon's head spun in surprise, before catching us both standing there. Looking surprised for a moment, she recovered almost instantly, standing and offering her hand to us both with a smile.

"Natalie, Maura, lovely to see you. I was just indulging a fancy. These shoes are far too extravagant and impractical for work"

I looked down to see her feet encased in Choo's, her left in the fuchsia heel, the other in a classic aqua pointy toed pump with a similar heel. Two other pairs of equally indulgent heels sat on the floor near where she was sitting. We were interrupted by the assistant returning with a set of leopard print pumps that I eyed appreciatively.

"Pardon me Sharon, here is the Archer in a half size smaller" Sharon turned and smiled. Thank you Emily, I'll be there in a minute"

I smiled, on a first name basis with the staff? Sharon must shop here more often than you might think.

"What brings you here ladies?" I smiled, nodding at the display.

"I'm looking for something for the Ball; I take it you are as well?" She nodded.

"I make an appearance each year, this year I'll be on Major Crime's table" I frowned.

"I expect that I will be as well, doesn't FID have a table?" She smiled slightly.

"No, my team pass on the night; it's not the warmest of welcomes for them. As a senior officer I have to attend so Major Crimes have been kind enough to let me join them. That is unless I want to sit at Chief Pope's table" We all pulled faces at that idea. "Brenda and her team have been kind enough to take in a stray" Natalie stared at Sharon, obviously unhappy at what she was hearing.

"I had no idea that things were that unpleasant Sharon, I'm sorry. I might ask if Brenda will let Ana and I join her table as well. That is if you don't mind?" Sharon blinked, obviously surprised.

"Mind, of course not, it's Brenda's table but I'm sure she would love to have you there, especially given how closely you've both worked with them on the sniper case" Natalie smiled.

"Excellent, then it's settled, I'll talk to Brenda tomorrow" Sharon looked confused.

"Oh, you're seeing her tomorrow?" Nat smiled happily.

"Yep, she's coming over for Sunday lunch" Sharon face wore a thoughtful look.

"I'm pleased, she doesn't get out as much as she should and spends too much time wrapped up in cases. How did you convince her to come over?" Natalie grinned.

"I invited her over, gave her the address and told her that if she wasn't there on time I'd send Ana to arrest her for missing her cooking, which is a serious crime, given how good she is in the kitchen" Sharon smiled happily.

"Excellent, I'm sure she'll have a great time" Seeing an opportunity I leapt in.

"I'm pleased you think it's such a good idea Sharon, as Jane and I were planning on inviting you over for dinner sometime soon as well" Sharon look surprised again, which made me think that being head of FID must be a more unpleasant position than I'd ever imagined.

"I couldn't impose Maura, but thank you for the offer…" I smiled; giving her that shoulder shimmy thing that Jane claims is one of my more charming weapons.

"It's an invitation, so it couldn't possibly be an imposition Sharon. Are you free for dinner tomorrow? I love to cook, especially for new friends" I could see Sharon caught between desire and reticence. Seeing it Natalie smiled.

"Ana and I can attest to Maura's skills in the kitchen, she's a fantastic cook, go on Sharon, you won't regret it" Desire won out.

"That would be wonderful Maura, thank you for the invitation. I'd love to. Perhaps I might be able to return the favour, invite both of you, plus your partners, to dinner at my place. No one calls my cooking superb, except my kids, but at least I haven't poisoned anyone yet" Natalie laughed, as I smiled.

"You just don't want to have to investigate yourself, assault and botulism" I waved at her accumulated shoes.

"We interrupted you Sharon, please continue. That looks lovely on you" She looked down.

"Thank you, I don't really have a dress to match it, but the colour and style is lovely. Mind you, if I buy them I'm sure it will become my new favourite and then I will want to wear it to the Ball, which means a new dress too"

"Yes, I have a few dresses, but I wanted to try a particular set for the ball, one which should go with pretty much anything. I turned to find the original salesperson standing there with the Lauren pumps in a box.

Putting my shopping bags to one side I took the box and sat to change shoes while Sharon tried on various shoes. Natalie chewed her lips for a moment.

"I might give the girls a call and tell them they have to amuse themselves for a while longer"

"Please tell Jane that Sharon's coming to dinner tomorrow night"

That taken care of, we sat back and started some serious shopping, with sales assistants coming and going in a stream, as we tried on a rainbow of colours and styles. Even Natalie, who had been a little reluctant, ended up getting in the swing of it. By the time we walked out to get a coffee, I had three new pairs to add to my collection, Sharon and Natalie one pair each.

I'd been surprised when Natalie bought the same fuchsia style that Sharon had been trying, however she explained that she could match it with a belt she had that was very similar shade and wear it with dressy jeans. Sharon went with the Archer leopard print, stating she had a matching clutch she could team it with and she could wear it with a dark chocolate gown for the Ball.

We made our way to a nearby café and enjoyed coffees and an indulgent lemon cheesecake muffin so big we could split it three ways and still have enough, while we gossiped about the people at work.

I could see that Sharon had relaxed enough to have a good time which made me smile, it was obvious that her job was a very lonely one, somewhat estranged from the rest of the force. I made a mental note to try and build a friendship with her, it was patently obvious that with the exception of Chief Johnson she wasn't close to pretty well anyone outside her team.

Finally we split up, with Sharon heading home and Natalie and I walking back to have a look at a few gowns we had earmarked for a second look.

We tried on a few, but most didn't make the cut the second time.

I was sitting waiting for Natalie to emerge wearing a red Versace, when her voice floated out over the partition.

"You were saying earlier that you were different and that you caused you troubles with guys. Did that affect your relationships with girlfriends too?" When I didn't reply her head popped up. "Maura, are you ok?" Reluctantly I spoke.

"I'm alright Natalie; I didn't have all that many friends before I went to work at Boston Police, most of my true friends date from then"

"How so, you're lovely, smart, warm, you're a wonderful person. Why didn't people see that?"

I was reluctant to delve into my miserable background. Natalie was so warm and outgoing that she probably made friends without even thinking about it, I could imagine her as the cheerleader at school, the homecoming queen, her beauty and personality would have made it all so easy for her. She probably couldn't understand my problem and wonder why I was weird.

Lost in thought, I was startled at movement right in front of me, looking up to see Natalie, dressed in nothing more than bra and briefs, kneeling in front of me, right there in the middle of the store.

"What's wrong Maura, did I say something wrong?"

"It's not you Natalie; I just didn't have any friends when I was younger" She looked at me, concern flooding her features, before laying her hand on mine.

"Maura, whatever happened then is the past, you're a stunningly beautiful woman who does a difficult, vital job well. People are drawn to you; I see it all the time. Ana and I are proud to be your friends"

I smiled sadly at her, realising that they only knew me now, not before Jane, they probably wouldn't have liked me then.

"Jane made me like that Natalie. Without her love and support and her pushing and encouragement, I wouldn't be the person I am today. She gives me the confidence to be who I am today. I used to be a nerd, with almost no social skills. Intelligent but not smart"

"Hey none of that, you're still the smartest person in the room, any room" I smiled at her words.

"Jane made me confident enough to be outgoing and to overcome my lack of social skills. Before that, through most of my time at university, the only social interaction I had with others was of a sexual nature. Men found me attractive and I went along with it, mostly to avoid being alone, but it never lasted, I was too weird for them beyond the sex" I could feel my eyes starting to tear up.

Natalie leaned in and enfolded me in her arms.

"Hey, that's long past; you're a gorgeous woman who's attracted a beautiful woman who loves you completely, so no tears, ok?" I nodded. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a salesperson waking towards us, but at a harsh glance from Natalie she froze, before turning away.

"Hey, the same thing happened with me. I wasn't the person I am now, before Ana walked into my life and made me a better person. I was a lightweight, drifting along, happy to not really do anything with any meaning or responsibility. Trying to be worthy of Ana made me want to change, to become a better person" She shrugged.

"I might not have liked who you were before Jane changed you and you might not have liked me before Ana changed me for the better, but we're who we are now, and were friends" She squeezed me tightly to her and I felt her lips kiss me gently on my forehead before she leaned back.

"I'd better get dressed and we should get out of here before that salesperson calls the cops to report a near-naked madwoman molesting customers in her store" I had to giggle at her words, which was probably the whole idea.

"Probably a good idea"

Making a quick exit we made our way to the last store we had to go back to.

A shimmering green floor length Ellie Saab that had caught our eye as it appeared on a monitor showing the original catwalk presentation when we there the first time.

The model had hair similar to mine and we had both admired the look of it. The store didn't have my size in stock, but had arranged to have one in my size brought over from another outlet, which I appreciated.

I tried it on, while Natalie waited expectantly for me to emerge. Checking myself in the mirror I thought I looked good, but one look at her face convinced me that it was coming home with me.

"Stunning Maura, that's the dress for the ball. No doubt about it" I swished up and down, admiring the fall of the train and the shine of the material. "I'm almost afraid to ask but do you have shoes to match?" I laughed happily at her cautious expression.

Yes, I have a gorgeous set of Laboutine's that I've not worn often. They will go perfectly with this dress or I could wear those Lauren pumps I just bought, they will look just as good"

"As you've just bought them, I'd go with the new ones"

I twirled again, admiring its fall.

"You know Natalie; you're a very bad influence on me" She look up at me, a smile half hidden.

"Me! How? I'm not the one holding your credit card at gunpoint saying buy this dress or the card gets it" I smiled happily back at her.

"No, but if I was out with Jane, she would have convinced me to finish up hours ago, and I would never have ended up with either this dress or the shoes, or even the opals from this morning" Her smile blossomed.

"Well, we were having too much fun to stop" I walked over to sit next to Natalie on the lounge in the dressing room.

"I'd really prefer to be doing this with Jane; I wish she liked doing this more. She will come with me but it's only as a favour and it's not her favourite thing, so I don't push her often" Natalie nodded.

"I know, it's not as bad with Ana but it's still not her favourite thing either" I looked down, hoping the next words didn't make me sound dreadfully needy.

"I'm sure you would really rather be shopping with Anastasia, the way I would with Jane, but I'm really, really glad that I have a shopping buddy" Hearing no reply, I slowly looked up, to find Natalie smiling softly at me. Without a word she reached out and wrapped me in a hug, rubbing my back and just holding me for a moment, before leaning back.

"Maura, I'm so happy to have a girlfriend I can talk to, go shopping with, or get all girly with. Ana's wonderful for me and I'm sure that Jane is perfect for you, but you and I, we're good for each other"

"You have no idea how much fun I've had today, thank you Natalie"

"Hey, thank you for letting me hang with you"

"Well, I suppose I should get out of this and we should head home"

"Probably, see how much trouble the girls have got up to without us"

"They're probably thinking exactly the same thing"


	31. Chapter 31

**Racking up **

Anastasia's viewpoint

After our discussion at the range, we had sat and chatted for a while, nothing serious, before finishing up our allocated range time and heading back home. We sat around for a bit while Jane flicked through the sports channels but there wasn't a decent game to be found.

I made some sandwiches and coffee for lunch, expecting a call from the girls sooner or later. We'd already discussed it on the way back and neither of us were prepared to bet against them being late, probably too caught up in a shopping frenzy to consider calling it quits.

Sure enough Nat rang early afternoon to let us know they were having lots of fun and we should amuse ourselves. I tossed the phone to Jane so Nat could pass on a message from Maura, before the call ended, leaving us sitting there.

"Well, so much for that" Jane nodded in agreement.

"Now what?" I thought for a moment.

"How about we head down to the local bar and grill, they've probably got cable sports and we can get a beer" Two minutes later we were piling into Nat's red MGB for the short drive down to the local. Jane had admired it as I backed it out of the garage.

"Nice old car" I nodded.

"1974 MGB, Nat's father restored it as a thirtieth birthday present, she loves it"

"That's a pretty nice present, are her parents ok to you?" I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye.

"Yeah, they kinda adopted me after my Dad died. They flew out to attend his funeral, even though they'd only ever spoken on the phone. Since then they've been good to me"

She nodded, as I remembered her comment this morning that Maura's parents didn't approve of her or them together.

"Sooner or later parents pass on, meaning you'll have to lean on each other. Maura's parents may not be that receptive to you, but Maura will be there when they're gone, and she'll need you. That's the only important thing, not their approval" Jane said nothing, just stared out the window for the next few minutes for the trip to the bar.

Kelly's Bar and Grill was a typical pseudo suburban bar, pre-aged tables and chairs, rustic charm straight from a factory in Mexico or China some other even more low cost third world hellhole. For all that, it had beer, a widescreen TV at one end of the bar and some quiet tables where you could hang out without issues.

We grabbed a beer and sat down, unfortunately, the sport was college basketball between two teams neither of us had much interest in. We ended playing darts for a while; just trash talking shit, before I spotted the pool table was free, giving me the opportunity to drag her away from darts, where Jane was kicking my ass, to a more level playing field.

Racking up the balls, we tossed to break, with Jane winning. Off the break a stripe dropped, so she kept going. As she lined up for her shot she glanced up from the table and spoke.

"So, given we have another two hours or more to kill, you want to answer a few questions?" I shrugged.

"It might as well go both ways, I will if you will" Potting another stripe she walked around the table, eyeing off the angles.

"What's off limits?" I thought about it as she shot and the ball just missed the pocket.

"Inside the bedroom's off limits" She stood back and watched me for a moment, before nodding.

"Deal" She held up her palms and tapped her chest. "These too" I dropped the first solid and started lining up a second.

"I can agree to that" The second ball dropped, leaving me looking for a third. "Anything else we can agree to on the spot" The third dropped but there was no way I was going to get a fourth, so I settled for making it hard for Jane, trying to hide the cue ball behind several solids. Jane watched me, scowling as it came to a stop.

"Bitch!" I smiled as I stepped away, heading for my beer. "OK, why are you rotting away in a liaison job here when you're better than that? With your record and skillset, you should be in Washington running investigations, not being a glorified go-fer for the LAPD" I paused , looking over at her. Jane smiled smugly. "Hey, you're not the only one with connections, I had someone look over your file"

I watched as she tried to work a way out from behind the solids, giving me time to think.

"I pissed off someone very senior in the Bureau, so I'm stuck in roles far away from Washington, jobs where I don't get the opportunity to shine and maybe get more challenging assignments" Jane eyed me over the balls, before caroming the cue ball off two cushions and trickling up to kiss a stripe, leaving me with a difficult recovery. I nodded at her skill.

"Good one" As I walked around the table, sizing up the shot, Jane stepped back and sipped her beer.

"What'd you do to get on a shit list?" I glanced over at her, before settling down for the shot.

"Sent his son-in-law to prison for eight years" The cue barely dodged two of hers, just skimming past them to tap a solid and push it nearer the pocket.

"That'd do it" I walked over to my beer and took another sip, remembering a different place, a different country and a court full of uniforms, as sentence was pronounced, the complete lack of remorse on his face. Eight years wasn't enough, but it was what he got. Jane's voice brought me back to where I was, as she potted a ball.

"Any chance of getting off it anytime soon?" I shook my head.

"Not until he retires, which is probably a decade away, so I get to stay out here on the far side of the country from Washington" She nodded slowly, lining up a second ball and placing it in the top pocket.

"That sucks" I smiled.

"Not totally, the weather's nicer here, sometimes it's good to be under the radar, if I was in Washington the petty harassment would probably be a lot more intense. I keep my head down, do my job the best I can and try and focus on the good, not the bad" She nodded, lining up a shot, which I was pretty sure wasn't going to come off, the angle was probably too sharp. It duly bounced off the edge of the pocket and rolled away.

"I'm here playing pool and drinking beer on a Saturday afternoon with you, beats a Washington winter any day" Lining up the shot, I let the cue kiss the ball, letting it trickle up and nudge my target gently into the pocket. Walking round for the next shot, I looked up at her, where she was frowning at the table.

"Why'd you come out here Jane? You're a Sox fan through and through, LA's a long way from Fenway Park" I lined up and shot, watching the cue roll up to the target, which duly rolled into the pocket, only to hit the mouth of the pocket and deflect out. "Crap!" Jane smiled at my predicament.

"When Maura had the chance to be the M.E. here for six months I wasn't going to not come with her" Jane lined up her shot and dropped it cleanly, 5-4. The next shot was too difficult, so she settled for placing it closer to a pocket for her next shot.

"Yeah, I understand that, but what were you getting away from?" She shot me a look as I lined up the shot and potted it, bringing it back to 5-5.

"We wanted to give what we had a chance to develop here, away from everyone who knew us. Lots of people knew us as individuals, but we wanted to be a couple" I nodded, lining up and dropping another ball, 6-5.

"Did you cop much grief from the people you worked with?" I wasn't going to get the next one, so I let the cue ball tap the solid ball on the way to the far end of the table from Jane's balls.

"Some, the people I worked closest with, they were cool, others thought we'd been together for a while and just not told anyone. Some others were pretty judgemental and one or two were complete pricks about it" She took her time lining up, before gently tapping the cue, which slowly rolled the length of the table, bouncing off the cushion and coming to rest up against a stripe, leaving me with no clear line to any of my balls. I sighed.

"Speaking of pricks…" She laughed and sipped her beer as I prowled around the table, the easiest shot would still require bouncing off two cushions and into a cluster of balls but I really had no choice. Taking the shot, I watched as it rolled up and split the cluster, hopefully making it easier to sink them on my next go.

Unfortunately, it gave a clear shot to one of hers, which she sank easily, walking around to the far side of the table to line up her last.

"So, where do you go from here" She grinned at me.

"That ball in that pocket, then the 8 Ball" I rolled my eyes.

"Funny. So what happens after the six months?" She paused from where she was lining up her shot.

"I dunno. I really hadn't thought about it. I suppose it's been like a holiday here, away from everything, just Maura and I. I hadn't wanted to think about afterwards" She lined her shot up and sank it, leaving just the 8-Ball, which was hiding behind my last ball. She shot and sent it ricocheting around the table, hopefully with an easier shot next time.

"Do you want to go back to Boston" I wandered around the table to take the shot.

"I'd go wherever Maura went" Looking over the table at her, I smiled.

"And she'd go wherever you went, so you'd better work out where you're going together" I lined up my last ball, leaving us both chasing the 8-Ball. Unfortunately there was no way I was going to be able to sink it from here. Jane just pursed her lips and watched as I tried and failed, before sinking the 8-Ball; Rizzoli 1, Romanov 0.

As we racked up for another game, Jane continued.

"I don't know. We both like it here, the weather's nice, the works full on but it's interesting too. It's kinda nice to be part of a squad where it's not all hanging off you" She frowned. "Back in Boston I was usually lead detective on cases, so it usually all came down to me. It's nice to know that you can actually trust the people around you as well, you can wrap up and go home knowing that there are other people there doing the job well"

"Says the woman I had to chase out of the office at almost eight at night"

"Well, yeah, it happens" I broke and the game started.

"At least here my mom isn't hassling me every night about marriage and grand-kids. She's a lot more manageable on the phone let me tell you Within two days of finding out about us she was already talking about a huge Italian wedding and lots of little Rizzoli's" I had to laugh at that.

"How'd that go down?" She smirked.

"To shut her up I told her that we were going to elope and if we did have kids we'd have a couple of little Isles"

"Did it work?"

"No, she didn't care as long as she got grandkids" I shook my head as I watched Jane clear the table.

"You want them? Kids I mean?" She paused for a moment, before wandering over to sip her beer, clearly buying time to answer.

"Yeah, not just yet, but I do, I could definitely see that" She wandered back to the table to finish her shot. "What about you?"

"Yeah, I want that, Natalie too. I could see a couple of little blonde haired blue eyed kids; as long as they look like her I'd be happy. We just haven't got to that point yet"

"I could handle a couple of mini Maura's around the house. I thought Ma would have kittens at giving up the Rizzoli name, but she was happy to sell out generations of Italian genes for grandkids with blonde hair and hazel eyes" I had to laugh at the image.

"Well if my kids look like Nat and yours look like Maura, we could marry them off to each other and breed a master race of stunning, super intelligent, super-sexy people" She laughed as I finally got a shot at the table.

"Sounds good, but I don't think I could handle you as an in-law. Natalie on the other hand…" I grinned as I moved around the table, potting balls. I was five behind with a lot of work to do.

"Yeah, yeah, put it back in your pants Rizzoli, she's taken" I dropped four in short succession as Jane watched.

"That's not what I saw, that was me she was cuddling into at dinner that night. I'm sure I could find room for one more" I missed the fifth and stepped back, shooting her a mock scowl.

"Yeah right, like you could hold out against both of them. They'd have you in dresses and heels and makeup before you knew it, no way could you say no to both of them" She laughed as she sank her sixth.

"It'd be fun trying. You're obviously no good at saying no to Natalie anyway" I frowned, watching her sink her last.

"What do you mean?" The last ball dropped and she lined up on the 8-Ball. Damn, too easy. Rizzoli 2, Romanov 0.

"I see you wandering around the building in those pants suits and heels, head office puke" She grinned, partly at the win and partly to take the sting out of her words. I sighed.

"That's Nat's influence. She started getting my suits tailored to better fit me and got me the heels. The suits are because she likes seeing me well dressed, the shoes, well that's her subconsciously trying to protect me" Jane stood back and looked at me, lifting an eyebrow.

"Look, after I got stabbed, I was on desk duty for a while, which Nat saw as an opportunity to get me better dressed. The shoes were part of that and I appreciate it, but it was also her trying to keep me safe. She must have thought that if I couldn't run in heels I couldn't get myself into the same mess I had before"

As we racked up another game Jane looked up at me.

"What'd you think about that?" I shrugged.

"I knew that she did it to protect me. It was understandable, I'd just put her through the worst two weeks of her life, she didn't want that to happen again. It was something I could appreciate so I didn't make an issue about it" She grinned.

"See, I was right, high-heeled head office puke" I laughed at her tone.

"Don't be too sure about that, I can still run in them if I have to" She looked at me with derision all over her face.

"Really?"

"Hey, after running in army issue boots, with weapon and backpack and 40 kilos of gear, in soft sand, heels are a snap"

"The only thing snapping will be your ankles, hey you want another beer?"

"Yes please, another Heineken"

We played another game, which I won before an older man and his middle aged son came up and asked to play, so we settled back at a table and worked on our beers and some peanuts.

"Seriously, do you want to stay here in LA?" She nodded slowly.

"Yeah, I could handle that. It's been good so far"

"What do you like about it?"

"The weather's better, it's much bigger, you're living in a holiday destination, we're a continent away from my family, what's not to like. Besides the likelihood that we'll get the big quake and California drops off the map and into the ocean" I grinned.

"There are times I think California is its own separate country already. Nat and I like it here as well despite the weirdness; it's a positive move for both of us" Jane nodded, looking off into the distance.

"You know what I like best about being in LA, you can be anonymous here. Back in Boston, between Maura's family name, society shit and her charity work on one hand and the whole 'hero cop' bullshit the press hung on me on the other, we couldn't be ourselves. Everyone was watching us"

"I knew about that, it'd make it hard" She came back to focus on me.

"Huh, how?"

"Natalie is a very good investigative reporter. Sit her in front of a computer with a Google and LexisNexis connection and she can dig out a frightening amount of stuff, even without tapping into the journalist's networks. You know the Chief's entitled to wear three ribbons from her time at the CIA on her dress uniform, but doesn't?"

"You're kidding me right?"

"Nope, Nat investigates anyone interesting she meets, all part of her wanting to know things. It's all part of her personality; she wants to know how things and people work. In another life she could have been a good detective. The Chief got hers for her work in the CIA interrogating Soviet spies, plus a mission in the Middle East just before the first Gulf War"

"Wow. I had no idea"

"Natalie does it almost like breathing. Give her something interesting and she digs. After that trivia night she was banging away on Google, chasing up some of the stuff we didn't know, like international politics" Jane nodded, before focussing back on me.

"So what did she find out about Maura and me?"

"Well skipping the obvious…" My eyes dropped to her hands for a moment before flicking back up and getting a slight nod in return. "…Maura's family is wealthy old money, pillars of Boston high society, her mother's an artist and her father is an anthropologist, they're both away a lot. Maura went to a girl's boarding school in France before coming back to the US to get her degrees at BCU and Harvard. She worked at a number of places, including Johns Hopkins before taking the Boston M.E. job. Her biological father is a mob boss who's now in prison, thanks to you" She looked at me and nodded.

"Not bad. What about me"

"You were a little harder, she almost asked me to dig, which she doesn't like to; she thinks it's cheating" I shrugged and took a sip of beer to wet my lips.

"You were top of your class at the academy, moved from beat cop to Vice very quickly, made detective younger than anyone before or since, first woman in Homicide, youngest Homicide detective, solved a lot of high profile cases…" My eyes flicked down to her hands for a second. "…getting a lot of public attention for some of those cases, including one where you were in a siege at Boston PD headquarters. You've had a string of use of force investigations, higher than almost anyone in the force, but have been cleared of every one of them, including the six fatal shootings in the past three years" Jane's eyes dropped to the table at that; clearly she still felt the weight of those shootings.

"As for the rest, you have two brothers; one of whom is a beat cop while the other did time, your parents are separated, you've worked with Maura for three years, been close for almost the same time, and together for almost a year" I shrugged again.

"The first reports that you two might be a couple started about two and a half years ago, when you were her escort to a charity function that was reported in the papers. They stopped beating around the bush about it when you turned up as her escort to a ball in Boston wearing a tuxedo and Maura had to get territorial to get some admirers to back off. Since then they've been calling you Boston's glamour lesbian power couple"

Jane, who had been watching me closely, leaned back and laughed at that.

"That night was so weird. I had to go but didn't want to wear a dress, the invite said Black Tie or Evening Gown so Maura suggested I go in a tux. One of the social reporters took a real shine to me and was a little too blatant about her offer so Maura stepped in and made it official. She got very possessive because Alicia, the reporter, wouldn't back off" She nodded at me.

That's pretty good, actually that's more than I would have expected" I nodded.

"It's what she does, she's good at it"

Jane was silent for a good two minutes, just looking out the window, seeing something that wasn't there, so I left her to think.

I noticed a guy, mid thirties, walking our way and shook my head. When he looked uncertain I used my hand to push the jacket I was wearing back from the pistol on my belt. Seeing it he decided to go elsewhere.

I turned back to see laughing dark eyes watching me.

"Smooth Romanov, smooth" I raised an eyebrow.

"Normally I'd just flash the ring, but then he'd settle for seconds and try hitting on you" I shrugged playfully. "No need to thank me, it's the least I could do" She hit the melodrama button.

"Seconds? That is so rude. Typical FBI agent" I laughed.

"Suck it up Jane, sometimes the truth hurts" She laughed.

"You wanna watch yourself Ana; sometimes a smack in the mouth offends"

We smiled at each other for a moment, before her tone changed, growing softer.

"There is one other thing that's pretty good about being here in LA" I tilted my head as I watched her, seeing Jane minus the sass and swagger, it was nice.

"Natalie and you, friends, it's nice. We like you too" I smiled, but before I could say anything she jumped back in, back to her more usual tone.

"Actually, to be honest it's mostly Natalie. You, not so much"

I was about to respond when I noticed the older guy who'd taken over on the pool table wander over. He had to be in his late sixties, African American, silver hair but still lean.

"Excuse me ladies" We both looked at him.

"I'm sorry if I'm disturbing you, My son and I, we feel kind of bad taking the table away from you, you looked like you were having fun. So we were wondering if you'd like to play a game against us" I looked over at Jane, who looked back at me and gave a small nod, then we both looked up at the older guy.

"Sure, why not" Standing Jane fished a coin out of her pocket.

"I'm Jane, this is my friend Ana"

"Hi, Thomas Cutler, that's my son George"

"Well Mr Cutler…"

"Please call me Tom"

"Well Tom…" She flipped the coin in the air and caught it, slapping it onto the back of her other hand. "…call to see who breaks"

Tom called and lost as I looked over at the younger Cutler.

"You guys want a beer?"

"Yeah, that'd be nice thanks, whatever you're having"

"Kick it off Jane, be back in a moment" She looked at me and turned that blinding Rizzoli grin on me.

"Don't be too long, I don't want to have to do all the work, again" I laughed at her teasing tone.

"Get stuffed Jane"


	32. Chapter 32

**Brenda comes to lunch Part 1**

Brenda's viewpoint

Noon Sunday found me standing outside the nicely upscale apartment complex where Natalie and Anastasia lived. I had almost been late as I hemmed and hawed about what to wear for several hours, selecting and discarding one outfit after another.

Jeans and T shirt: Too casual.

Tailored skirt and jacket: Too much like work.

Fitted skirt and blouse with heels: Too dressy.

Blazer and slacks: Way too much like work.

Floral dress and sweater: I could imagine the look on Sharon's face, it went straight back in the closet.

What exactly was the expected dress code when having Sunday lunch, with a lesbian couple, at their place?

I'd had very little contact with lesbians before, the ones I had met had all been work-related. I hadn't really socially interacted with them and hadn't really wondered about their lives.

Now I was working with not one but two couples and their lives were intersecting with mine in ways I'd never even thought of before. Neither fit with my admittedly shallow understanding of lesbian's, mostly made up of stereotypes formed from pop culture

Neither Jane nor Anastasia were particularly butch, given to short haircuts and mannish clothes and while both Natalie and Maura did dress extremely well, neither of them was what I would term an excessively 'femme' woman, they both did challenging jobs very well.

Was one of them the 'male' and the other 'female' in the relationship? I didn't know if those stereotypes truly existed. I could imagine Ana and Jane as the dominant partner the 'male', in any relationship no matter who their partner was, male or female. But that would mean Maura and Natalie were subservient and that didn't seem very likely.

Natalie was way too outgoing and confident to knuckle under to anyone, while Maura had real strength under that polished exterior. Neither seemed likely to be the type to take a back seat in anything, let alone letting another woman tell them what to do.

On the other hand, maybe they did, maybe I hadn't a clue what I was talking about, which was equally likely.

I'd finally settled on wearing a nice pair of dressy jeans, paired with a thankfully pressed white blouse and cork wedge heels I'd picked up on a whim months back but not actually worn since. I'd brought a nice bottle of white, plus a bottle of merlot, to team with whatever was on the menu.

As I walked up the steps, I remembered Natalie strolling into my office a few days ago.

She had casually breezed in, chatted about the sniper case and we'd discussed what we could and couldn't tell the media and then out of the blue she'd asked me what I'd planned for the weekend.

Without thinking I had answered honestly, that is that I had nothing planned, which was all too true.

I had very few friends here, mostly the people in my squad and Sharon. Everyone else I had known I had met through Fritz and when that ended so did they. Mostly I buried myself in work, or sat around in the mess that my apartment had become.

Even before Fritz left I had been a messy person, now, with no one to bug me about it, the place was a disaster. My dry cleaning bill was a significant portion of the Californian budget deficit; thank god there was a local family run dry cleaning place that did practically everything besides underwear. It meant that I only had to do laundry once a week and drop off the rest on Monday morning and it would be ready for collection on Tuesday night.

I'd also become a very good customer of almost every takeout place in the area, often too tired or frankly too miserable to cook, it was awfully easy to pick up the phone and have something delivered, which I seemed to do more and more often.

Natalie had smiled and said in that case they'd love to have me over for Sunday lunch and before I could think of a reason why I couldn't she'd got me to agree to come over and was strolling out the door, promising to email me the address and time.

With no good reason to back out, I found myself knocking on a door, to be answered by a very casual-looking Natalie, comfortable and attractive in jeans, polo shirt and slip-ons. Stepping in, I was wrapped in a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek before I knew it and then led into the kitchen. I was still processing what that all meant when I spotted Anastasia.

She was leaning against the kitchen bench next to the oven, wearing linen trousers, an oversized shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a pair of casual runners, looking very young and fresh. Looking up with a warm smile she walked over and gave me a hug and a quick peck on the cheek before thanking me for bringing some wine.

Hugs? Kisses on the cheek? I was wondering what it all meant, or was I overthinking it, when Anastasia took the wine and walked back to the bench.

"We're having Beef Wellington, so probably the red's a better choice" I was surprised and must have shown it, as she looked a question at me.

"I haven't had Beef Wellington in years; the last time was in England in the late 90s" Ana smiled happily at my confession.

"Ah, I first had it when our family was posted to England when I was a kid. I liked it enough to learn the recipe years later"

"What did your family do?"

"Dad was in the army, so we got posted to lots of interesting places, including England. I got exposed to all sorts of different foods which I like to cook from time to time" Natalie smiled.

"I get the benefit of Ana's culinary history; I'd never had Beef Wellington, or Steak and Kidney Pie before I met Ana. Same with Pot-au-feu and Pelmeni and Rogan Josh"

"Pelmeni, now that's something I haven't tasted in a while" Ana looked at me with a surprised expression.

"Most people don't even know what it is, let alone tasted it" I smiled, remembering back through the years to sitting in Dmitri's kitchen eating Pelmeni with vodka and black bread. He may have been an exile from his home but he still loved the food he grew up with.

"Ah, my Russian teacher was very partial to it and made it often" Ana's face lit up.

"_Vy govorite po-russki?_" ***** I smiled back, delighted to speak it after so many years.

"_Da, nemnogo_" ****** Ana smiled at me, equally pleased.

"More than a little I suspect, you have a Muscovite accent"

"Thank you, yours is of St Petersburg, but you've not spoken it for a long time I think"

"Not since before my father died, he was the one who taught me. He was a Russian language specialist with the army. Where did you learn yours?"

"It was part of my training at Langley, along with German and Czech" Natalie looked pleased.

"Excellent, someone who can translate the things Ana says when she's pissed off at something" I smiled at her.

"Russian is a perfect language for swearing, great for relieving stress. I confess to using it at times"

"Then tell me, what does '_YobTavyu maat_' mean? That's the one she uses most often" I looked at her for a moment and then looked over at Anastasia, who flushed.

"That would be '_Yob tvoyu mat_' ******* and I don't think it would be appropriate to explain it to you. Anastasia would need to do that" The look of frustration on Natalie's face was amusing.

"Dammit, finally someone who speaks Russian and they won't tell me. What is this, a Slavic speaker solidarity thing?" I smiled..

"More something that nice girls shouldn't be saying out loud" She looked sideways at Anastasia, whose cheeks were burning.

"Ah, I see, thank you Chief"

"Please, call me Brenda" They both broke out in smiles and we wandered over to the lounge while lunch finished cooking.

As we sat I looked around the apartment, it was quite tastefully furnished, with a number of personal touches, including a photo of Natalie with what were obviously her parents, another of Natalie and Ana with the Eifel Tower as the backdrop and one with Anastasia's arms around an older man with salt and pepper hair, who I assumed was her father.

The overwhelming sense was of normality, a couple sharing a home. I suppose that this was what I should have expected, but I really didn't know what I would see; whips, chains and sex toys scattered across the place?

"I'm glad you found the place ok, I'm still finding my way around"

"Well, I struggled for a while, to the point that David Gabriel wouldn't let me go anywhere alone, I kept getting lost" Natalie nodded.

"Well, compared to LA, Seattle was a breeze; thank god for GPS otherwise I'd never find anything'

"I had to arrest an actor one day not long after I got here and David wouldn't let me drive. He told me that I would probably get lost on the way there" Anastasia frowned.

"That sounds a bit harsh" I smiled at the memory.

"No actually, he was right. He pointed out that even if I did find the right place, could I be sure that I would be able to get Dean Kingsley back to the station without getting lost, while being followed by a swarm of media? He ended up driving" Natalie nodded.

"I remember that, it made the news up in Seattle. As I recall he was released later"

"Yes, it turned out that one of his long string of casual conquests had killed his wife to free him of a non-existent pre-nup. She thought with the wife gone they could be together and raise their baby, she was carrying Kingsley's child you see" Natalie looked horrified and fascinated all at once.

"What happened?"

"Well Kingsley had already moved on to a new woman, so we convinced him to cooperate, which allowed us to extract a confession from the girl. She's doing life while her parents raise the daughter"

"Didn't Kingsley want to raise his child?" I looked over at Anastasia and shook my head.

"No, he didn't want the scandal, plus a child might slow down his career or his affairs, so he signed over custody" She pulled a face as if she had tasted something vile.

"Son of a bitch, that's low, choosing your job or mistress over your own child" I nodded.

"Well, doing anything else would suggest more character than Mr Kingsley possesses I'm afraid" Natalie nodded.

"That's something I'm still getting used to here, the number of celebrities who end up passing through the system, mostly on minor charges but occasionally serious ones like Kingsley. We had nothing like that up in Seattle" I laughed, remembering some of them who had passed through our hands.

"Don't worry, they're still human, with feet of clay" Natalie smiled.

"Well Kingsley's last show bombed on cable so maybe karma did get him"

We spent the next half hour chatting about old cases involving celebrities. I had to admit, they were very good at teasing the stories out of me, tag teaming me when I tried to protest that I'd done nothing but talk since I got there.

Mind you, I was finding their company fun, they were good listeners, plus I hadn't sat down with people like this outside of the squad and Sharon for a very long time, over a year in fact.

Before I knew it I was sitting with my shoes off, legs curled up under me on the sofa laughing as Natalie entertained us with a story about an interview with two stars making a series in Seattle.

"Their characters were supposed to have '_unresolved sexual tension_'…" She said, putting air quotes around the words. "…but it was obvious they didn't really have all that much liking for one another. Can't say I was all that surprised when he tried to hit on me, he came across as a real sleaze bag" She laughed, looking over at where Anastasia was working on lunch in the kitchen.

"Ana was standing nearby and I was afraid she might hear him and probably shoot him, which would have been a career limiting move". Ana's voice came from the kitchen behind me.

"I did hear him; I just couldn't believe what he was saying"

"Anyway, I finally got away from him, where he trying to peer down my blouse, to interview his co-star. I thought it would be a relief to get away from him, only to find out she was even worse" She rolled her eyes at me.

"My god Brenda, she blatantly propositioned me; got all touchy feely and then, when the interview was over I felt something sliding into the back pocket of my jeans. It turned out to be the key card to her hotel room" I laughed, although I could understand the attraction to Natalie, she was stunning and I wondered how Anastasia dealt with it. It must be hard to love someone that everyone else wants, men or women.

"So what did you do?"

"When I pulled it out of my pocket, I marched back up to her, shoved it into her hand and told her that I was in a relationship"

"How did that go down?" She shrugged.

"Told me that we were both here now and I didn't have to go home. I pointed out that not only was I in a relationship, but my partner was a real live FBI agent standing not 20 feet away"

"Did that scare her off?" She shook her head.

"No, she turned around, spotted Natalie, looked her over and asked me to bring her too" Anastasia's voice piped in from the kitchen.

"You never told me that part!" Natalie looked over to the kitchen.

"I wasn't going to share anything with her and besides, she wasn't even a natural red head"

"Oh"

Natalie looked back and shrugged at me.

"Ana has a thing for red heads, I'm sure she's got the hots for Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow, even if she is faking it" Ana's voice rang out from the kitchen again.

"Hey Blondie, you were the one rewinding during her action scenes, not me" Natalie rolled her eyes at me again before responding.

"Only because you were too busy drooling to work the remote" I had to laugh, they sounded like a normal couple, even if they were both women.

"So Brenda, now you see why I work for the police, we get to put the sleaze bags in jail, not promote their careers" I nodded.

Anastasia must have opened the oven, as the most delicious aroma came wafting out of the kitchen, causing my mouth to water. Natalie obviously saw the expression on my face as she laughed and stood up.

"C'mon, let's go see what Ana has for us"

What she had for us turned out to be a sensational Beef Wellington with roast vegetables and it was delicious. So delicious I had to go back for seconds.

I ended up declining dessert simply because I had no room for it; I was so proud of myself, especially when they told me it was gourmet chocolate chip ice cream. I ended up back curled up on the sofa, nursing a red wine as Natalie and Anastasia sat on the other sofa.

Well more honestly, Ana sat at one end with Natalie lying curled up next to her using her shoulder for a pillow. It was a very affectionate position and I could see she wasn't self-conscious at all about how she behaved in front of a stranger. On reflection I couldn't see why she should be, we were in their home and they weren't doing anything more than just being close.

We had been chatting about lots of things, including parents and the various ways they had embarrassed us over the years. Some of the things Clay and Willie Ray had done over the years, mostly involving Major Crimes, had them in stitches

"What about yours, surely mine can't be the only ones to do something that makes you want to curl up and die?" They looked at one another for a moment before Ana nodded in a 'you go' gesture.

"My parents are really cool, spoilt me as I grew up and always supported me, even when I decided to do journalism instead of medicine like they hoped. I did first year medicine, but found I couldn't stand cutting people open, which was kind of a problem as a surgeon, so I switched to communications instead"

"Anyway, the first time I went home with Ana, I was trying to tell them about her, but I couldn't find the right time, or the right place, or the right words. It wasn't that I was ashamed or anything, just fretting about how you come out to your parents when as far as they know you were completely straight without a gay bone in your body"

I nodded, fascinated. How do you tell your parents you're a lesbian? I couldn't imagine my parent's reactions; I think I'd probably be too afraid to tell them.

"They already knew that she was my best friend, we had been friends for about four months before we moved from friends to being partners" I watched as Natalie reached out and intertwined her fingers with Ana's in a casually affectionate move.

"Anyway, mom was going to put Ana in the guest bedroom, while I slept I my old room, which had two single beds in it, the other was for my younger sister before she went off to college" she added. I nodded.

"Anyway I suddenly had this idea that we would spend a week there and be stuck in separate rooms, so I told mom and dad that as we usually stayed up late at night chatting, she could stay in the other bed in my room and this way we wouldn't wake anyone when Ana went back to her room" She shrugged.

"They agreed to it and Ana stayed in my room. Each night we would push the beds together and then set the alarm for very early to push them apart the next morning before my mom came in" Ana laughed.

"We thought we were being very discrete and secretive, while still being together" Natalie shot a happy look at Ana before continuing.

"Right up til the third afternoon, when we came back in after a day out shopping with mom, to discover that dad had moved the single beds out of my room and replaced them with the double bed from the guest room. When I asked them why, Dad replied that this way we wouldn't be dragging the beds back and forward over the polished floors" Now it was Anastasia's turn to laugh again.

"For a moment there I thought that we might have got away with it, that it was all innocent until Natalie's mother Carol pointed out that this way, there was no gap between the mattresses and it would be a lot more comfortable no matter what we were doing"

I laughed, imagining how I would have felt if my parents had done that if I had turned up with a girlfriend in tow, on second thought, considering my daddy and his temper, perhaps not.

"It tuned out that on the first night my mom, who hadn't been sleeping well, had walked past our door on the way to get a glass of water and decided to look in on her baby girl. Well, she found us curled up asleep together under the covers, obviously naked" I must have looked as appalled as I felt, as Natalie laughed at my expression.

"Oh for heaven's sake, what did she say?'

"Nothing to me, but she told my dad the following morning. He apparently told mom, who was a bit upset, that I could have done a lot worse and if she cared to remember some of the guys I dated before university, I had" Ana leaned over and kissed Natalie's brow before looking at me.

"I think it helped that her dad was a farmer and my dad became one after he retired, so we got to talk about stuff like crop rotations and animal husbandry and farm stuff. We sort of bonded over wheat seed catalogues and types of fertilizer so now I'm the favourite daughter" Natalie looked up at her with mock outrage in her voice.

"Hey!" Ana was unfazed.

"Well I am. I wormed my way into their affections when I remembered their wedding anniversary and you didn't" Natalie pulled a face.

"Jeez, you're never going to let me forget that are you?" Anastasia looked smug.

"Nope" Natalie sat up and mock-frowned up at her before looking over at me

"Honestly Brenda, I don't know why I keep her around" Ana smirked.

"It's really simple Brenda, she may have the looks but I'm the brains of this outfit"

"Says you!" cried Natalie as she launched herself onto Ana in a tickle attack.

"Damn right" I watched as they wrestled for a few seconds, each trying to tickle the other into submission, before they subsided into a gasping, giggling heap.

I had to smile; they were so sweet, so obviously happy and content with each other, that I couldn't help it. I missed that. Even though the worst of the silences and the fights that marked the last six months of our time together, there were other times when I could snuggle up against Fritz and feel the comfort of someone else.

As I thought back, I realised that I had been at least as much at fault as he had been. I wanted a career, I wasn't ready to stop and walk away from my job for children and a family home and the whole happy families fairy-tale but I desperately wanted someone safe who would look after me and treat me like I deserved to be loved.

Fritz had wanted someone to love who would have his kids and who would be safe at home, not out being shot at by criminals and stalked by serial killers.

Basically they were mutually incompatible objectives that we had papered over, he wanted someone to love and take care of, and I wanted to be loved and held. That got us through a couple of years but the cracks had started to show, especially about children.

It had been nine months since Fritz left and three more before that when we had slept in separate beds since I had last felt real human contact and I felt a gaping chasm open up in front of me.

I watched the women in front of me demonstrate what a life full of warmth and love really was and it just made the loneliness even worse. In fact I don't think I'd ever had the sort of easy intimacy with someone that they did, they were so comfortable with each other that they didn't mind looking silly, or others seeing how much they loved each other.

All my life, with the people I loved, or thought I had, there had always been a tension there.

My first husband turned out to be an asshole, I'd been young and stupid and I'd paid the price for that before escaping via a divorce and a move to a different city.

With Fritz it was the understanding that we really wanted different things and that I had pushed that aside in the hope of making it work, only to realise it wasn't.

With Pope, it was the hiding and the sneaking around and the eventual dawning realisation that we were never going to work, he was never going to leave his wife for me.

With the few others; one night stands and short term lovers and the two longer term boyfriends I'd had, I'd realised that I was taking physical solace but there was an emotional void in there, one which I never really managed to fill.

So I had poured myself into work, a career, catching criminals that thought they were too smart or too powerful to ever be caught, because it gave my life purpose and helped me try and avoid staring to the emptiness inside me.

Now, as I sat on a comfortable couch in a nicely furnished apartment with two women I barely knew, I truly realised how empty and alone I really was. I wanted what they had; love and comfort and acceptance and instead I had a black abyss in my soul.

I suddenly realised that tears were running down my face and that I was tightly sandwiched between both of them, their arms around me, holding me and whispering quiet words of comfort. How had we got here? How had I lost control?

More importantly, how did I get out of here?

**Translations**

***** Do you speak Russian?

**** **A little

******* Fuck your mother, a Russian curse


	33. Chapter 33

**Brenda comes to lunch Part 2**

Anastasia's viewpoint

I felt Brenda coming back to us, from wherever she had been, her tears slowly stopping.

This was going to be the hard bit. Natalie and I had been lying there recovering from our giggling fit when we noticed the barren expression on Brenda's face, then the tears had started and without thinking Nat had been over on the couch with Brenda, offering comfort and support.

She always had been the more emotional, giving one, always the one with the big heart; it's why I loved her so much. With her it was instinctual, me, I thought first and acted second, but it was obvious something bad had hit Brenda hard. Deputy Chiefs of the LAPD don't fall apart without a reason, let alone on someone else's sofa.

Still, she needed help and if we could give it to her then it was the very least we could do. I took my place alongside Brenda, just rubbing her back while Natalie spoke quietly to her, just meaningless words of comfort to bring her back to herself.

We must have sat there for a minute or two, before Brenda suddenly stiffened, obviously realising where she was. Nat continued to talk to her, her voice low and soothing.

"Hey Brenda, it's ok, you're ok, take your time" She kept her head down, no doubt ashamed of breaking down in front of near strangers.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me, I'm so sorry"

"Nothing to be sorry about, we all have bad times, sometimes you just have to let it out"

"Well… thank you for a lovely lunch, I really should be going" I looked across Brenda to see the look on Nat's face, if I didn't stop Brenda, she would.

"Hey Brenda, why don't you hang here for a couple of minutes, it's probably not a good move to be driving in your state" She stiffened even more.

"What state? I'm fine thank you" I waved towards her wineglass on the coffee table.

"You're probably still over the legal limit, you probably need another 30 minutes or so before you're under, wouldn't be the best look to get pulled over on a DUI violation" I flashed a glance at Nat, asking for help.

"Yeah, it'd be bad PR for the LAPD and lord knows you don't want Pope breathing down your neck" She mock shuddered to try and get Brenda to laugh. It didn't quite work but she lost a little stiffness in her posture. "Ana, could you please make us some coffee? How do you take yours Brenda?"

"I don't want to be a bother, I'm fine" Natalie smiled at her.

"Ana's a trained barista and we have an espresso machine so you get any kind of coffee you might like. Go on" I could see her mind working, asking for a coffee would get me into the kitchen, then she only had to get past Natalie to leave. I smiled; she didn't know Nat at all.

"Well, a cappuccino would be wonderful if it's not too much trouble" I stood up.

"One cappuccino coming up" I strode out to the kitchen and got the machine warmed up, which took a couple of minutes.

Meanwhile I shamelessly eavesdropped as Brenda tried to find a reason to leave, only to run into Natalie's logical reasons why she shouldn't. When she wanted to, she could construct a damned good logical argument for most things, which was exactly what she was doing now.

Eventually she brought the subject gently back to what had happened.

"Brenda, if it was our behaviour that caused you any discomfort, I'm so very sorry…" Brenda looked shocked.

"Oh no, you've both been lovely, it was just me, I'm sorry"

"Don't be Brenda. Are you sure? You seemed like you were having a good time until then"

"Oh I was, it was nothing, really" Nat smiled at her, her '_really, tell me more_' smile, all compassionate and concerned. Most people forgot that she had been a journalist, an investigative journalist and a good one. I'd never told her but she could have been a good cop, if her life had gone in a different path.

She could be a great interviewer as well; she could tease things out of people without them knowing how much they were letting on. I called it her 'enough rope' technique.

"Well, please tell me what may have upset you, we'd love to have you visit again, but we want you to have a good time and certainly not have you upset again"

"Oh it's nothing to do with you, it was me"

"Oh Brenda, I'm so sorry, I was worried that we'd done something to upset you"

"Oh no, it was nothing you did, please don't worry about that"

"Well of course I worry, it's not like you to be upset, you're such a strong person normally that I was worried, that you were OK and that we could help you"

"It's nothing, I'm fine now"

"Are you sure Brenda, you looked quite upset and if there's anything that I can do to help you, I'm here for you, so is Anastasia"

"I'll be fine, really, I should head home"

"Well, Ana'll be here shortly with your coffee. In the meantime, I'm a bit concerned that you'll be ok when you leave. Is there someone at home who can keep an eye on you, just be there if you need them?"

"No, I'm feeling much better now"

"Is there no one we can call Brenda, just so that you'll have someone to keep an eye on you?"

"No, look I live alone, but I'll be alright. I really should go" Natalie suddenly got a '_piecing it all together_' look, which I recognised.

"There's no one is there Brenda? No one to call, no one to look after you? No one"

"I'm fine Natalie; please let the subject drop, please" Brenda's voice grew louder.

"Why are you running Brenda? You don't have to be lonely, we're here to listen, to be here when you need someone, it's a lot better than being lonely in an empty house" Brenda's voice grew even louder, although I could see the shocked expression on her face.

"I beg your pardon? What are you insinuating?" Natalie shrugged.

"I'm not insinuating anything. You're separated, a bit of a workaholic, someone who buries themselves in their work. It's only natural given your alone to do so and sometimes the loneliness gets too much, doesn't it"

Brenda just stared at Natalie, obviously unsure of what to say. Natalie pressed her advantage.

"It's normal to feel lonely Brenda, it is. I'm not going to tell you it isn't" She reached out and laid her hand on Brenda's.

"Look, I'm simply saying that you sometimes need to open up to someone. To tell them that you're not ok, that you're feeling like crap, without worrying what they might think. Neither Ana or I would dare to judge you, but if you want someone to talk to, someone to talk about the fact that you're lonely, talk to us"

Brenda sat there, looking a lot smaller than normal. She lived her life as the Chief; the boss; the person who led from the front, it must be hard for her to accept that sometimes she didn't have to be the strong one. Finally she spoke.

"I'm sorry Natalie; you shouldn't have had to deal with this…" Natalie jumped in on that hard.

"Bullshit Brenda. No one's an island; everyone needs someone to lean on, not always, just when needed" She paused as I came in and put a cup in Brenda's hands and walked over to sit on the other sofa, giving Brenda some room with Nat, who continued speaking.

"Look Brenda, it's completely natural to be lonely, especially in the situation you're in. It's hard to be completely open with the people around you when you're their boss. Same with the people above you, all they want to see is that you're doing your job effectively. It helps to be able to talk to people, to know they care" Sitting there, I decided to dive in.

"Do you have anyone you can really talk to openly about stuff like this, how you're feeling?" Brenda looked quite small sitting there.

"Only Sharon, Sharon Raydor of FID. We managed to become friends, despite everything that's happened. God alone knows how, we used to fight constantly, could barely stand to be civil to one another, now she's like my only real friend in the city"

"Not the only one Brenda. Look, neither Ana nor I work for you; we're neither your subordinates nor your superiors, so it doesn't matter what you say to us, it's ok"

"I couldn't possibly..." Nat broke in.

"Of course you can, a burden shared is a burden halved" I smiled at Brenda.

"Might as well get used to it Brenda, as you may have noticed, Natalie's persistent when she wants to be"

Brenda sat there, looking into her coffee, thinking, as Nat and I shared a glance. I could tell that Natalie wasn't going to let Brenda out without finding out what was wrong and trying to help. I smiled to myself; she was always the more outgoing of us, Brenda was finding that out now.

"Are you lonely Brenda? It's ok if you say you are. It's hard to be alone"

Brenda sat there, staring into her untouched coffee, before eventually nodding slowly

"That's ok Brenda, completely understandable, but you don't have to face it alone" Natalie flashed a glance at me and I spoke up.

"Brenda, I understand it's hard to be alone, but that's just where you are right now. You won't be alone forever; you're far too attractive to be alone for long" She snorted gently.

"I seem to attract the wrong people, it never really works out"

"Their loss, you're smart, accomplished, beautiful and successful. It's just about finding the right person" Nat jumped back into the fray.

"You'll find them, their probably not that far away, you just have to be looking" Brenda looked at us both.

"All the interesting people I meet are usually suspects; I wouldn't recommend that" I nodded.

"That might be an issue, the whole long distance relationship thing, you here, them in prison" She smiled at that, it was a pale, weak thing but it was a start. Natalie saw it and decided to go with it.

"If I knew someone good enough for you to recommend I'd do so, but all the people we know are in Seattle and, well, most of them are girls" She shrugged. "Sorry"

"I'm fine, really I am, thank you for hearing me out" Natalie was having none of that.

"Brenda, I'd hate for you to have to arrest us for kidnapping, but if you think Ana and I are going to just let you walk out of here the way you're feeling right now, you're sadly mistaken" I spoke up to support Nat.

"Brenda, what my annoyingly persistent girlfriend here is saying is that we're basically going to harass you until you understand that it's ok to feel like crap, that we know why you feel like that, that you can tell us anything and it won't go beyond these walls and that you can come to us anytime, that's what friends are for"

"I appreciate the offer, I really do, but they're my problems and you don't need to hear them" Natalie laughed at her words.

"Look Brenda, you're entrusting your secrets to a journalist and an FBI agent, what could possibly go wrong?"

Brenda had to laugh at that, which was the whole objective. Subsiding, she shook her head at us both.

"You're both very persistent" I smiled as we got to move from Brenda trying to escape to something a little more positive.

"Course we are, when it's important" Nat smiled at Brenda.

"C'mon Brenda, sit back and relax. We invited you over for lunch with the expectation we'd end up chatting for a few hours afterwards, I don't see any reason to change those plans" I smiled.

"Might as well, sit back, relax and enjoy your coffee Brenda, why fight it?"

Brenda looked down at her untouched coffee for a moment, before sighing. Looking up at us she shook her head gently before slowly settling back into the cushions. Natalie relaxed from the tense pose she'd been holding and smiled.

"Brenda, you're a nice person doing a difficult job. The people in your squad think the world of you, with good reason. I know not everyone in the LAPD appreciates you but they all respect your work"

Brenda slowly sipped the coffee, relaxing a little more at the familiarity. I decided I would get the ball rolling.

"Brenda, I'm pretty sure that we upset you and I'm sorry" She went to deny it but I held up my hand. Her ingrained Southern manners made her stop, allowing me to finish. "If you're alone, seeing two people having what you don't can be hard, we're sorry, it was thoughtless of us" Brenda shook her head.

"You did nothing wrong, you're just happy together is all. I shouldn't have let it get to me like that" Natalie took it up.

"Well, we'll try and be a bit more considerate in the future, I want you to come back here regularly and I don't want you feeling awkward waiting for us to rub it in your face. That's not going to happen, so don't worry about it" Before she could reply I spoke up.

"Brenda, do you socialise much outside work?" For a moment I thought she was going to get defensive, but she sighed instead.

"No, not really, I do coffee with Sharon every Monday night, sometimes other nights too, but apart from that not much. Work pretty much fills up my time" Natalie smiled.

"We can fix that" Brenda looked at her curiously. "Maura and I went out shopping yesterday, we had a wonderful day, you'll have to come with us next time, it'd be fun"

I smiled as Natalie started drawing Brenda in; when Nat set her sights on being someone's friend they didn't really stand a chance.

"We've also been out playing tourist; we went to Griffith Park the other weekend. You've been here for a while so you can recommend some things we should do, should see, decent restaurants, that sort of thing"

"Well, I can do that, depending on what sort of food you like"

"As Ana can attest, I like almost anything" I grinned at that.

"Mostly food that's got too much sugar, fat, cholesterol and all the other bad things" Brenda smiled at that, far closer to her normal smile.

"Oh, I can understand that, I have a terrible sweet tooth, Sharon keeps teasing me about that"

"We bumped into Sharon yesterday actually, out shopping in Jimmy Choo's down on Rodeo Drive"

"Really? I know she likes nice clothes but I didn't realise she liked those shoes, their lovely but very expensive"

"She was looking for something for the LAPD Ball, same as Maura and I" Brenda looked interested.

"Oh, did you find something?" Natalie smiled happily.

"I got some shoes, in fact we all did, but I didn't really find a gown. What I did find was some really unusual jewellery" She stood up and walked over to the sideboard where she had placed her new earrings.

Soon Brenda was admiring them, she'd heard of opal before, having seen some years ago. That led into discussion about what Brenda was wearing to the Ball, all designed to put her at ease. I watched as Natalie and Brenda chatted, seeing Brenda unwind and relax, becoming more the woman we'd seen at lunch.

Before she knew it two hours had passed and Brenda had agreed to doing lunch with Natalie once a week and spending time with us regularly, either having dinner out or shopping or playing tour guide.

As we were wrapping up Natalie pulled Brenda back to the Ball.

"I understand that Major Crimes will have a table at the Ball?" Brenda nodded.

"Yes, the squad's big enough that we can fill a table, even though it's not a partner's night, why?"

"Maura and I were talking to Sharon, who said that FID doesn't really feel all that welcome there. She has to attend as a senior officer, so she'll be at your table"

"Why yes, that's right, after all the help Sharon's been in dealing with some problem's we've had in the past, she's practically a part of the team"

"Would you mind if Ana and I were also at your table?" Brenda look surprised.

"You're both more than welcome, you know that, but surely you have other offers" I shrugged.

"Only Chief Pope's table, I can't speak for Nat"

"I have a number of offers, but after talking to Sharon, I'd like to be at your table with her. The other alternative is Chief Pope's table and I'd really like to pass on that" Brenda nodded.

"I can completely understand that, I can guarantee that you're both welcome, the guys will be happy to have you, if only to add a few beautiful women to what's otherwise pretty much an all-male table" I smiled.

"Not this year, Sharon, you, Jane and Maura, Natalie and I, I think the demographics are a bit different this time round"

"Oh for goodness sake, I completely forgot about Jane and Maura, you're right, this will be interesting. The guys only complaint will be that while the table's full of attractive women, their all either taken or unavailable" Nat smiled.

"Then that's agreed then" Brenda smiled, then paused, a hesitant look on her face. I saw it and leaned forward.

"What's up Brenda?" She looked a little embarrassed.

"I know you and Natalie are together, same as Maura and Jane. But do you mind dancing with other people?" She looked awkward. "I mean normally I get asked to dance with some of the guys and I'm sure they would love to ask you both, but if it makes you uncomfortable I'll let them know not to ask"

Natalie and I shared a quick glance, before she smiled at Brenda.

"What sort of dancing?" Brenda smiled back

"Mostly formal dancing, waltzes and that sort of thing, several of the squad are quite good and they've said they like the opportunity to dance" I shrugged.

"It shouldn't be a drama, not for me" Nat giggled.

"They know if they step out of line my incredibly jealous girlfriend is standing nearby, armed and dangerous. I don't have a problem either" Brenda smiled broadly.

"Thank you, I appreciate it and the guys will too" Natalie smiled back at her.

"It's our pleasure Brenda, what else are friends for" Brenda looked truly happy at her words.

"I appreciate your kindness, I really do" I smiled.

"Brenda, it's not a kindness when it's for a friend; that's what friends do for each other"


	34. Chapter 34

**Jane and Maura talk**

Maura's viewpoint

It was Sunday morning and I'd planned an interesting day's activities. We had six months here in California and I planned to make sure we saw as much as possible, however it didn't turn out the way I planned, a situation that happens more often than I would like, but then I am in love with Jane Rizzoli, a personification of chaos if ever there was one.

It had started when I dragged Jane out of bed and told her to get up and face the day; her mumbled reply that 8.30 on a Sunday was an uncivilised time to be up was clearly silly, so I wouldn't take no for an answer and sent her into the bathroom and a shower.

When she appeared some 20 minutes later, showered and dressed, I suggested we head out for breakfast out, but to my surprise she asked if we could stay in and talk. Given Jane prefers to not have to make Sunday breakfast and as it was her turn she would have to cook, I realised something was amiss.

Jane settled herself in the kitchen and banished me to the island bench, where I drank coffee and browsed several news sites on my tablet before immersing myself in one of the latest articles in The Lancet, an interesting one on the increasing incidence of Kawasaki Syndrome in children in industrialised countries. As I finished up, Jane presented me with a delicious breakfast, including sausages, bacon and eggs done two different ways, grilled tomatoes and toast.

For all that she praises my culinary skills to our guests, Jane is not unaccomplished in the kitchen, for which she 'blames' her mother Angela. Her usual retort is that her mother wouldn't allow her to move out of home without being able to cook well enough to feed a prospective husband.

Whatever her reasons, Jane's cooking is always excellent, even if it includes too much cholesterol, trans-fats and other less than healthy ingredients. It is tasty though and when I point out the less than healthy aspects of her cooking, she usually retorts that I generally leave nothing uneaten, which is also true.

We sat and ate in a companionable silence, before Jane made her way back and made each of us a second coffee. I normally don't have a second one so soon after the first, but upon protesting she told me we would need it.

I was starting to grow a little concerned, as I was unaware of anything that might have brought on a state of anxiety sufficient to warrant Jane's actions, so it was with some trepidation I followed her into the living area and sat down.

Seeing me seated, Jane walked around to the sofa on the opposite side of the coffee table and sat facing me. This was unexpected and rather unwelcome, as I enjoyed cuddling with her; it always makes me feel protected and loved. I couldn't wait for her to begin and vocalised my concerns.

"Is there some reason you won't sit with me Jane?" She looked at me squarely for a moment, before speaking.

"I want you to promise me to that you'll stay there, baby, at least until we finish" I felt the beginnings' of a tiny panic deep inside me. This wasn't the confident, swaggering woman I was used to, this Jane was pensive and almost scared, which worried me, I almost never saw her scared.

"Why Jane, what's wrong?"

"If you sat next to me you'd cuddle me and I'd chicken out and not follow through with what I have to say, and I have to say this, it's too important not too"

"Jane, are you alright, is everything alright, are you sick?" She held up a hand and stopped my questions.

"No Maura, I'm not sick. Well, yes I am, I'm sick of being afraid" I looked at her, wanting to ask what was bothering her, but chose to remain silent, letting her tell me in her own way and time. She looked at me for a moment, before understanding that I was letting her take the lead.

"I'm afraid, Maura, afraid that I'll lose you" I was stunned.

"Jane, you could never lose me, I love you" She held up her hand, waiting for me settle back.

"Maura, I've been afraid that you'll leave me since we first met" I opened my mouth but nothing came out.

"I've been afraid that you would grow tired of me, or I'll do something stupid and drive you away, hurt you and make you see that it's all too hard, that I'm too hard" Jane shook her head sadly.

"God knows, I've done enough to make you question our friendship in the past, I seem only to attract pain and suffering and bring it into your life" I was stunned and hurt; did she think that I was so shallow to walk away from her.

"Jane, I would never give up on you, I gave you my heart, we've overcome every obstacle to be together, to love each other" Jane nodded, acknowledging what I was saying.

"Maura, this isn't about you, you're the best, the bravest person I know, you're way too good for me… No please let me finish" I held my tongue, realising that Jane was trying to explain how she felt, why she felt like this.

"I've never felt this happy, the last year with you has been the most rewarding, amazing year of my life. The fact that the smartest, most beautiful person I've ever met has allowed me to love her is the greatest gift I've ever had. I've never been so fulfilled, so complete" I went to speak but she silenced me with an anguished look and I settled back, my hands clasped together in my lap, as Jane continued.

"But Maura, I keep waiting for this to end, I so afraid of the consequences if I mess this up. I see someone like Natalie, whose beautiful and happy and outgoing and loving and she scares me, because I wonder when a Natalie will walk into your life and show you how much you're missing out on because you're with me, how much more you could have, should have" I shook my head, wondering what had so unsettled Jane, so caused her to doubt herself.

"Jane, I'm not with you as some sort of temporary surrogate until someone else walks into my life. I love you, only you and I have given you nothing less than all I am. Why do you doubt my love, our love?"

"I don't doubt your love Maura; I'm incredibly humbled to be yours. It's just that I worry that I'll somehow stuff it up and bring all this joy to an end. Losing your love would end me; you're the light and joy in my life, without you I might exist, but I wouldn't, I couldn't live"

I sat back, watching as Jane unravelled in front of me. I felt my heart go out to her as she willingly stripped away the armour, the strong confident bad ass detective persona fell away to let me see inside her, to the shy, repressed and insecure woman behind the mask.

"I'm so afraid Maura, I'm terrified that I'll ruin us, that I'll bring you more pain and drive you away. I'm so sorry Maura, you deserve better than this. You deserve someone better, stronger, not a broken wreck"

I was stunned, Jane really couldn't see her worth, the incredible person she was, her huge heart, the driving desire to protect the weak and the innocent, her unconditional love for her friends and family and her willingness to sacrifice everything for me. She was all this and more yet she couldn't see it, unable to understand that I could no sooner walk away from that person than I could willingly stop breathing.

I looked at Jane, at the tears in her eyes, the scared look in her eyes, and realised something of what it was costing her to willingly let me see her weaknesses, her vulnerabilities, to overcome a lifetime's training in hiding it behind a strong, tough façade.

"Jane, listen to me. It's my turn. You need to let me speak" She nodded tightly, her eyes fixed on me like I might suddenly disappear.

"Before I met you, my life was ordered, calm and perfect. It was also sterile, empty and dead. Then you arrived, you looked inside that cold little world, shook your head and pried me out of it. You dragged me kicking and screaming into the real world, the one that's chaotic and messy and full of all the emotions I couldn't understand and wouldn't deal with" I smiled, remembering those early days. In particular I remembered the poor officers who had been foolish enough to call me "Queen of the Dead" in Jane Rizzoli's presence, by the time she was finished no one ever called me that within my or her earshot ever again.

"Then you stood between that world and me, protecting me while I learned to deal with it, you showed me that the world is full of warmth and joy and happiness and love; especially love. Without you I would never have discovered any of that, you brought that into my life"

"I also brought you pain and suffering Maura, sometimes I think that's all I really bring"

"Completely and utterly incorrect Jane, you've brought me acceptance, tolerance, happiness and love as well and far more of that than anything negative. Yes there's been pain, but that means I feel, something I was never close enough to anyone to really experience before" I paused, looking for an analogy to better explain how I felt.

"Love brings pain, when the one you love is away for a few days, there's pain when they leave, loss while their away and regrets for their absence until they return. If you didn't feel love you would never know those pains, and when the person you love returns, the joy is incredible" I smiled at Jane, trying to let her see how much she means to me.

"The joy you bring me is indescribable, to wake up with your arms around me, to know that even when you sleep you protect me, guard me and shelter me. No one has ever cared enough to do that" I looked down at my hands, where they were clasped tightly together, then back up at Jane.

"When you are with me, I feel that nothing can stop us, together we are stronger than the sum of the parts. We both faced obstacles to being together, work issues, the judgements of our peers, problems with our families, but none of them was of any consequence in the face of our combined strength, nothing could stop us"

"We couldn't let them Maura, I'd rather lose all of that than lose you" I smiled.

"And I feel the same darling. I would rather walk away from that life, if it meant that we could be together, no matter what the costs, we would be together, which is far more important" I waved my arm at the house we lived in, the new roles for both of us.

"In a way we have already done that, we stepped away from our previous life and have immersed ourselves in a new one here. I realise it was particularly hard on you, to walk away from your family, to come with me to California, it's a sacrifice I do truly appreciate you have made for me"

"It wasn't hard Maura, you could've said China or Africa or India or anywhere else and I would have gone willingly, to be with you. Anything, anywhere to be with you"

"Jane, I would have never gone anywhere without you, we're only here because you agreed, I don't want to be separated from you, ever"

"That's how I feel baby, to the ends of the Earth to be with you"

"Then why, knowing how much we mean to one another, do you doubt it?" She looked down at her hands, where she was slowly massaging her scars.

"I don't doubt you Maura, I never have. I admired you from the first time we met, I grew fond of you as we worked together and then one day I realised that I'd come to love you; that life without you was too horrible to contemplate"

"So why doubt it now?"

"I don't doubt you, I doubt me, that I can keep from doing something stupid that'll drive you away, that'll make you realise that the good doesn't outweigh the bad" "I shook my head, hearing the self-doubt and fear in her voice.

"Jane, I cannot even contemplate a life without you, a return to the life I used to have would destroy me, I've had the experience of real life, for the last three years you've been my guide as you showed me a wonderful world I thought forever closed to me" I felt my voice start to break a little, as it caught in my throat.

"For the last year you've given me your heart, a gift without equal and one which no riches could ever buy. You've shown me a love I never imagined, a life that I never contemplated except as a tantalising dream, now it's a reality. I go to sleep knowing the world is right because I'm with you and we love each other and wake knowing that it wasn't a dream, because I wake held safe and warm in your arms and our love is stronger every day"

I could see the unshed tears in Jane's eyes as she stared at me, matched by the ones in my eyes.

"When you have these doubts Jane, I want you to come to me; we can always talk them through. After all we have surmounted to be together, there's nothing we can't talk about, nothing we can't deal with. Will you promise me that?"

She nodded, wiping at her eyes. I wanted so much to rush to her side and cling to her, but I needed to be strong, I had something I needed to do now.

"Maura, I… Of course I will, I want us to be happy, I don't ever want to cause you pain"

I nodded slowly, realising that Jane had given me the opening I needed.

"There is one thing that I need from you Jane, because it does cause me pain" The look of shock on her face, followed by the sheer terror evident pulled at my heart.

"What Maura? Anything, just tell me"

"I need you to consider the risks you take in your job. I understand your job is dangerous, and you're driven to push yourself to make the world safe for others. I'm not asking you to not take risks when you have to, but I would ask you to not take unnecessary risks" Jane's mouth opened, then closed again as she stared at me. I pressed on.

"I've been there once Jane, sitting in a hospital wondering if you would live or die. I don't think I could handle that again. I don't want to get a call, telling me to get to the hospital quickly"

"Maura, I'm a cop, it's not the safest of careers, you know that"

"I do Jane; I'm not asking you to stop being one, just to not take risks you don't have to" I paused, thinking about how I could convince her to do this for me. The truth was the simplest option.

"I can't picture life without you there, beside me, keeping me safe and warm and loved. I don't want to even consider that. I know it's selfish but I want to spend the rest of my life with you beside me, please don't do anything to jeopardise that"

"It's not selfish baby, I want that too"

"Then for my sake, our sakes, please, if there is a safer option, please think of me and take that one. I know it's a lot to ask, but I can't even consider a life without you"

She looked at me; then slowly started nodding.

"How can I refuse you anything? Besides, I want to spend the rest of forever with you"

"I don't want you to not take risks; it's part of who and what you are, just that you think first"

"Maura, how could I deny you this? It's not selfish to want to be together. I can't predict the future, but I can promise you that I won't take unnecessary chances"

"I couldn't ask for anything more than that my darling, as long as you come home safe to me"

"I promise to think first; then act. What we have is too precious to risk"

"There is one more thing I want from you Jane"

"Yes? Anything I can give you"

"Can I have a cuddle please?"

Resting there, held in Jane's strong, comforting arms, I realised just how right this was. How all the world's problems and issues seemed a little less daunting, a little less insurmountable from the viewpoint of being held in her arms, safe and warm and loved.

She leaned in and gave me a soft, gentle kiss. This wasn't a time for passion, it was a reaffirmation of what we had that was at the core of our relationship, the love that bound us together. I leaned into her, hearing her heart beat as I laid my head on her chest.

"The next time you doubt yourself, come to me first, so I can still your fears. Will you do that for me?"

"Of course I will. It's just that I've always struggled to get anything, to succeed and this, what we have together, seems so good, so perfect, that I keep wondering when I'll wake up and realise it's just a dream"

"It is a dream, I'm living the dream I've always wanted, to be loved and love in return" I felt her kiss the top of my head.

"In that case, it's a dream I'm happy to share" We sat there for a while, each cherishing the feel of the other, the closeness and love. Finally a thought came to me.

"You said you've been scared of losing me since we first met. Why did you bring it up now? Not that I'm not glad that you did, but why now?"

"When you were out shopping with Natalie yesterday Ana and I went to the range. While we were there we had a discussion, a difficult one, but one that made me realise that we had to talk" I shifted around to look at her.

"I'm glad you did, if it means you won't doubt yourself again and we talk things through. It must have been difficult though, to open up to someone like that"

"Yeah, it was, but she kind of understood what was bothering me. She explained that when they were starting out she had been insecure as well, but talking had cleared the air between them and laid the foundations for what they have today". I smiled.

"Remind me to thank her. I'm really, really happy we talked today" Janes arms tightened around me.

"So am I" I thought for a few seconds and then frowned, which Jane saw.

"What's up baby?"

"Just thinking; Natalie and I had a discussion about asking you to be more careful. She said that she and Anastasia had discussed that very thing after Anastasia had been badly hurt"

"Do you think they planned it? Steering us like that" I considered Jane's question. It seemed unlikely, the conversation had really just wandered to that point because of what I had said, which Natalie couldn't have predicted.

"No, I don't think so, what about you" Jane shook her head.

"I think they just wanted to share their experiences, kinda help us avoid situations they've had to deal with. They care about us, they really do" I smiled, snuggling into Jane's warmth.

"I like them, they've been good friends to us both and it's nice to have people who really care about us" I felt her head move as Jane nodded.

"That it is, we're lucky to have people who care enough to tell us things we don't want to hear, to have friends, really good ones"

"I'm glad we came to LA, it's proven to be a good decision for a lot of reasons. Natalie and Anastasia are two of those reasons"

"It's good to have friends. It's even better to be loved. I love you Maura"

"I love you too Jane"


	35. Chapter 35

**Sharon and Brenda's coffee catch up**

Brenda's viewpoint

Another Monday passes, unloved and unlamented. Like most people, the best part of Monday starts for me when I walk out of work. Meetings, briefings, evaluations and all now over, I can walk out knowing that I can look forward to caching up with Sharon and putting the pain of the job and the day behind me.

Thinking back to yesterday, talking to Ana and Nat had made me appreciate how few friends I actually had, which made me treasure Sharon even more. She had been there when my world had started falling apart, back when Goldman's inquisition had happened.

When Fritz walked out, she'd been there too, when I needed a friend. I couldn't begin to appreciate how much she'd kept me from giving in, kept me focussed on what was important, the job, not giving up, facing each day as they came.

Why, the first few weeks after I'd come back, she'd either dropped into my office or rung every day, just to make sure I knew someone was there if I needed it. I'd thanked her, even while I wondered why she bothered. Lord knows I'd been such a wreck. Little by little though, each day had gotten easier, week by week I'd been able to move past everything.

Sharon had been the one who had convinced me to move out, rent our house out, she'd told me there were too many bad memories there and living amongst them hadn't helped me recover. She'd been so right, about that and a lot of other things.

I was the person I was today in large part because she had been there. Sharon had sat with me and refused to let me get drunk, she'd taken pity on my wardrobe and started dragging me out shopping, I now looked a lot more like the person I was supposed to be.

Sharon had explained why I had to change. I was Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson, the most senior woman in the LAPD, and someone a lot of women in the LAPD looked up to. I'd scoffed at that, but Sharon had explained that when I walked into a court or a press conference or a meeting, I was supposed to make people realise that I was someone to respect. It's alright to be underestimated by a suspect, but not by people who you had to impress, like a jury, or the media or the Mayor.

I owed it to the other women who saw me as their leader she said, even though I didn't think I could provide any sort of decent example, especially given how badly I'd messed up my own life, to be a guide to someone else's. Sharon, needless to say, hadn't agreed and had plenty of good reasons to back her arguments.

Besides, as she pointed out, I was an attractive woman, dressing well made people notice it even more, which made a lot of criminals who didn't know any better underestimate me. As Sharon had put it, they were too busy looking at me, thinking about how good I looked and what they'd like to do to me, to realise what they were saying and admitting to.

I sighed as I sat in the café and waited for Sharon, I was here today because of the strength and purpose she had helped rebuild within me. I owed where I was today in large part because of Sharon Raydor. She was my best friend, even though in so many ways we really didn't know much about each other.

We'd never visited each other's homes, didn't really talk about our pasts, or our families and never about past relationships, but in all the places it mattered, we were friends, the best of friends.

Which led me to Natalie and Anastasia, they cared, enough to want to be my friends as well. I'd never had a surfeit of friends in the past, never really had people seek me out, I'd always been a bit of a loner, driven into my work, not really the social type.

Now they wanted to extend the hand of friendship, drag me into their lives, to be a part of the happiness they had. It was very tempting, to be with people I could be myself with, lord knows I'd been a mess at their place yesterday, breaking down in front of them, but they didn't seem to care, it only seemed to spur Natalie on even more.

Instead of letting me flee their place with my tail between my legs, they'd outright refused to let me go, made me sit there while they told me that they didn't care about it, that they would be there if I needed a friend and that they wanted me to be a part of their life.

I smiled, heaven knows why they wanted someone as much of a mess as I was to be their friend, but it felt nice, to have people who appreciated and wanted me as a friend. I wonder what I'd really done to deserve that.

Maybe my luck was finally changing, if so I wasn't complaining, it was well and truly overdue.

I caught Sharon's eye as she walked through the door, looking crisp and efficient and gorgeous in a crimson jacket and a dark skirt and heels, not Jimmy Choo's I noticed.

"Brenda, sorry I'm late, a meeting with Pope ran over time" I smiled.

"Don't worry about it, I'm just glad you escaped Pope's clutches, nothing bad I hope" She rolled her eyes.

"It shouldn't have taken as long as it did. He was dithering so much I was wondering if he was trying to work up the nerve to ask me out again, but the moment I told him I was late to a meeting up with you, he backed right off" I laughed at that.

"Good to see our reputation's still intact" I smiled as Sarah arrived with our drinks.

"Sarah, how do you do it, Sharon's only just arrived?" She just smiled, before leaning in to place them on the table.

"Truth be told, I saw Sharon walking across the street towards us and got the order in early" Sharon smiled lazily.

"Sarah, bless you" She smiled happily as she wandered off to attend to a couple who'd just walked in.

So, how was your weekend, I hear you had a lunch date" I smiled at Sharon.

"That I did, it wasn't at all what I expected" She took a sip of her coffee and leaned back, a question in her eyes

"Oh, how so?"

"I don't know, I've never been to a lesbian couple's place before, I didn't really know what to expect" She just looked at me, scepticism evident.

"You're kidding right, what were you expecting?"

"I don't know" I shrugged. "I really had no idea, for all I knew there'd be whips and chains and sex toys on the mantelpiece, silly I know" Sharon lifted one eyebrow, a sardonic smile on her lips.

"They probably keep them in the bedside table Brenda, just like everyone else" I smiled back at her, deciding two could tease.

"Oh really Sharon, everyone?" Sharon just grinned.

"Isn't that where you keep yours Brenda?"

"Certainly not, though where you keep yours is your own business" She smiled widely.

"Or do you keep it stuffed under the pillow for easy access at all hours of the evening?"

"Of course not!"

"Good, cause that'd be a little uncomfortable, not to mention unsanitary" I felt my cheeks redden, I should know better than trying to out tease Sharon Raydor.

"Sharon!"

"Well don't blame me honey; you're the one who brought up the sex toys. Ow!" She pulled her arm back from where I'd lightly swatted it. "What was that for?"

"You were being silly"

"Well yes I was"

"Good, cause I like silly Sharon"

"Well if you stop hitting me you might see more of her" We smiled happily at each other, before we both took a drink.

"So, how was it, really?"

"They were really nice Sharon; Anastasia's a really good cook. She made Beef Wellington, which I haven't had in so many years. Roast vegies, it was delicious. How was your dinner with Maura and Jane?"

"Really, really enjoyable, they have a beautiful big house out in Westwood, pool, really nicely furnished" I thought about it, Westwood…

"Pricey"

"I don't think that's a problem Brenda; there was a Mercedes convertible in the garage.

"Oh"

"They make a nice couple, very close, they're very touchy, tactile I mean, they touch a lot, probably without even realising it" I smiled, remembering yesterday.

"Same with Anastasia and Natalie, they're really close too, very comfortable together" I remembered something that Natalie had said. "I don't even think they realise how close they are, even in front of others"

"Did that bother you?" I decided I wasn't going to tell Sharon the truth, not tonight anyway.

"No, it was nice; at least someone's happily involved" She sighed.

"Yeah, that'd be nice"

I looked out across the café, thinking back to how happy they had been, very obviously deeply in love, sighing to myself. I noticed Sharon was much the same, a wistful look on her face.

"Well, rather than mooning over what they have that we haven't…"

"And what their getting that we're not" Sharon interrupted, laughing at my expression.

"Sharon"

"Well it's true, at least their getting laid"

"Probably" She looked at me and scoffed.

"Probably? If I was Jane or Anastasia and had Maura or Natalie, I'd be getting as much as I could" I shook my head.

"You're being silly again"

"Brenda, can you honestly sit there and tell me you weren't the tiniest bit jealous" I thought about that. I actually had been; I'd wanted what they had. I still did. I sighed.

"Well no, they have someone special, that'd be nice"

"Of course it would, that's the point"

"I know, we both need to find someone, like that's going to happen" Sharon obviously decided it was time to change the subject, waving for Sarah to come over to take our order. After she left Sharon shifted in her seat.

"Anyway, anything new on the sniper case?" I shrugged.

"We actually got a break, but not a big one" At her questioning look I ploughed on. "A security camera on the building site the sniper used for the last shooting caught an unmarked white van on the street outside. Unfortunately the angle meant we didn't get a licence plate or a shot of the driver, but it arrived less than two hours before the shooting and left less than five minutes afterwards"

"That certainly fits, so what now?"

"I had Tao going over traffic cameras in the vicinity of the previous sniper vantage points. Most of them don't have camera's covering car parks, but we checked late night businesses that were on the main access points. We found a late night gas station camera that showed a similar white van on its way to and from the scene of the second shooting, the times fit too" Sharon tilted her head to regard me.

"Obviously nothing to identify the driver" I shook my head.

"Too dark, wrong angle and too far away, but it's something we didn't have before. It gives us something to look for tomorrow morning I guess" Sharon nodded, understanding what I meant. I didn't really want to think about that, so I changed the subject, knowing Sharon would understand why.

"What about you, any new cases"

"No fortunately, we had a quiet weekend, for which I'm really grateful" I smiled, happy for her, FID call outs are never easy, given the stress and the time limits.

"Thank heavens for that"

"Yes, I really didn't want to face another investigation, I just wanted a weekend to myself"

"Hence the shopping" She smiled.

"And the spa and salon treatments on Saturday morning, I was planning on a quiet Sunday lazing around before I got the dinner invitation, mind you I wasn't complaining about it, Jane cooked Italian, very nice Italian in fact" I nodded.

"What'd you have" She smiled.

"Jane made us lasagne, apparently her mother's recipe; the sauce was to die for" I nodded, lasagne is god's gift and good lasagne is hard to find.

"I hope to get a chance to try it then, I love lasagne"

We were interrupted as Sarah arrived with our meals; the next couple of minutes were busy as we ate in a companionable silence. Finally Sharon leaned back from her plate and looked up.

"Anything new turn up on the warehouse case?" I smiled.

"Yes actually. Surveillance on Little Dog, the Blood Catorcie's new leader…" She nodded, remembering our previous discussion. "…turned up that he was meeting with not one but two different people, one we believe is apparently from his new friends the Zetas, the other positively identified as being from the Sinaloa Cartel. He seems to be playing both sides of the street" Sharon just looked at me, stunned. Finally she spoke.

"Both? My god, that bastard has balls, no brains but balls of steel. Too bad for him when either find out" I nodded.

"My daddy always said sitting on the fence was a good way to get an ass full of splinters" Sharon was still shaking her head slowly.

"If the cartels work out what he's doing, splinters will be the least of his problems" I nodded.

"We haven't really turned up much we can leverage off to drag him in. Yes we suspect what he's doing but we can't prove anything" Sharon looked pensive.

"If he thought that he'd been caught out by one or the other he might spill, but he's probably not smart enough to see that" I thought about that for a moment, wondering what we might be able to do too leverage that thought...

Realising I needed to think about that I shook my head to clear it and turned to other, more pleasant matters.

"I understand you were shopping for the Ball?"

"Yes, I found some shoes I liked plus I have the dress already, so I'm good to go. What about you?" I frowned.

"I haven't really looked yet" She pursed her lips.

"Brenda…" I recognised that tone. "…you don't have a lot of time, it's only three weeks away" I sighed, before trying to mollify her.

"I know sweetie, I know. I just have to find the time" She sighed, somewhat theatrically.

"Do we need to go out looking for something together next weekend?"

"I'll let you know"

"Brenda…"

"I promise Sharon, I'll let you know" She looked at me, before smiling evilly.

"You'd better; the last thing I want is for you to have the Ball arrive and you have nothing to wear. On the other hand, the sheer horror of you having to attend naked in front of Pope and Taylor should be enough to get you off your lazy ass and out shopping for something" I shuddered.

"Ok, ok, I give, I'll go looking for something, I promise. Maybe I have something in the wardrobe I can wear"

"Please Brenda, not another of those hideous floral prints you used to be so fond of. I thought we'd managed to wean you off them"

"I liked them"

"C'mon honey, the first step to dealing with a problem is admitting you have one"

You don't know what I might have in my wardrobe"

"The horror, the horror" I poked my tongue out at her, making her laugh. "Now who's being silly?" I grinned at her.

"We can be silly together then"

"Speaking of silly, you will not believe what I heard two officers from vice were caught doing while supposedly on a late night stake out" I grinned and leaned forward, gossip was always fun.

"Do tell…"

"Well, it involves two prostitutes, a pizza delivery boy and a late night florist shop"

"Oh, this sounds good, tell me more sweetie, tell me more…"


	36. Chapter 36

**The fifth sniper attack**

Anastasia's viewpoint

The call had come in pretty much as expected, a little later than we'd feared but earlier than hoped. Natalie and I had been up early, got ready for work and then sat around talking, waiting for the call. We were about to hop in the car for the drive to work when despatch rang Nat, so we changed direction, arriving at an unremarkable single story house in a nice suburb, all neat lawns and flower beds with two hatchbacks in the driveway.

As we pulled up, I saw Maura and Jane getting out of their car ahead of us, with Chief Johnson arriving just behind us. A few other Crown Vics behind her announced the arrival of the rest of Major Crimes, though I could see Flynn already here, standing near the door talking to some uniforms.

We gathered around the Chief, who bade us a quiet welcome before leading us up to the front steps where Flynn was waiting.

"Morning Chief, got another bad one" The Chief nodded before reaching out and picking a set of gloves and shoe protectors from boxes sitting near the door, grabbing a set for herself before passing the boxes to Gabriel to pass around.

"Well, please don't keep us waiting Lieutenant, what are we looking at" Looking at Flynn, I thought I detected a reluctance in his face, I wondered what was so bad about this compared to the others, they'd all been pretty terrible. Out came the inevitable notebook as he relayed the details.

"Victim's name is Iris Park, age 27, a porn, excuse me, _adult_ actress; she shares the house with another porno star, a Kathy Shorten. They perform under the names Tiffani Tang and Brooke Linn" Flynn looked up, but their stage names meant nothing to the Chief, or most of the rest of us for that matter, though I did see Sanchez's eyes widen at their names.

"Apparently they were in a relationship, because at approximately 6.54 this morning, while engaged in sexual intercourse, Ms Park was shot through the window of their bedroom, killing her instantly" I winced and I wasn't the only one. I felt Natalie's hand seek mine out and give it a desperate squeeze.

"Ms Shorten was physically unharmed but she's nearly catatonic now. The first officers on the scene responded to several neighbours' calls about a woman screaming inside the house. When they got here, they kicked the door in, to find Ms Shorten covered in her girlfriend's blood and brains, screaming in the bedroom, cradling the body" Natalie's hand convulsed on mine, painfully tight. I flicked over to her face but she was trying to keep it blank, though I could see the pain in her face.

I noticed everyone's face tighten in response to Flynn's matter of fact delivery, even if he wasn't as calm as he was trying to sound.

"Oh my lord" The Chief's voice, low and pained, said it all.

I held tight to Natalie's hand, noticing Maura's hand resting on Jane's arm. I shook my head; I couldn't imagine the woman's pain, losing her lover like that.

"The first units on the scene couldn't calm her, she was attacking anyone who came near her or the dead woman's body so the first EMTs to arrive had to sedate her to get her out of the room" He sighed. "It took three officers and two EMTs to hold her down long enough to give her the shot, she's now apparently catatonic, completely shut down, one for the shrinks now I guess" Brenda shook her head, before turning to us all and gesturing inside.

"Well, let's get to it people, we owe it to Ms Park and the other victims to do our best."

We traipsed in, giving our names to the officer inside the door. The house seemed neatly furnished, nothing fancy but clean and tidy. Nothing in here gave any indication of the occupant's profession, until we passed a large movie poster with two attractive women, one Asian with blonde highlights, the other a fake redhead, both facing away, dressed in lingerie, looking back over their shoulders at the camera. The movie title was 'Shameless Arousal' and featured the names Tiffani Tang and Brooke Linn. Perhaps it was the first movie they starred in together, maybe.

I noticed some drug paraphernalia on the living room coffee table, hardly surprising really, given our victim's professions. I understood that the industry involved a lot of that; god knows I'd want to be drugged off my face to fuck strangers on camera, no matter how good they looked.

I saw a hole in one wall and a corresponding hole in the opposite wall. The light interior walls hadn't stopped the bullet, passing straight through several rooms until it embedded itself into the bricks of the exterior wall.

Flynn led the way into the bedroom, where we stood for a moment, looking at the king sized bed up against one wall, that wall now dripping with blood and other material, as was the sheets and pillows, The body lay on the bed, up near the bed head, tumbled on itself, probably where it had been pried from the anguished grip of her heartbroken lover.

Almost as one, we looked out the shattered window facing the foot of the bed, looking at a hillside about three quarters of a mile away, the logical firing point given the trajectory of the holes left in the walls. Brenda looked at me, asking the unspoken question and I nodded.

Maura walked carefully around the bed, leaning over the body, before taking a step back, her professional façade crumbling for a moment. I'd seen her unbothered by all the deaths so far, what had changed? Brenda saw it too, we all did. Jane was next to her in an instant, murmuring to her, too low to be heard with her hand on Maura's shoulder.

Seeming to draw strength from Jane's touch, Maura looked up at the rest of us.

"I'm sorry Chief Johnson; I doubt there is much to be learned from an autopsy" Clearly perturbed, Brenda walked to stand beside Maura, as Jane stepped back.

"Why whatever is it Doctor?"

"The victim was of particularly small build, even for an Asian female Chief, as you can see, the impact of the bullet was… extreme" With gentle strength, Maura leaned in and carefully rolled the body onto her back.

I heard several of the team take sharp breaths as the extent of the injury became apparent, as Natalie spun away, her face buried in her hands while Buzz and David Gabriel looked like they were going to vomit. I had to swallow hard to fight the bile back myself.

The bullet's impact had splattered the victim's head, there was almost nothing left above the neck, just part of the back of the skull, with scalp and hair attached, leaving the body almost headless in the most gruesome manner.

We must have stood there for about five seconds, dealing with the horrific sight, before the Chief called us back to what we were here to do.

"Alright everyone, take a moment, then we process the scene, same as always. There are people counting on us to do this right"

I took a step over to Natalie and laid an arm around her shoulders, before she turned and buried her face into my neck, where I wrapped my arms around her as she trembled and shook.

Normally we're nowhere this open at work, but Natalie wasn't handling it well, so everyone else could go to hell.

Looking around I realised I needn't have worried, everyone else was trying to deal with it in their own way, the amount of blood, the damage, it was horrific, I knew I'd be having nightmares about this tonight, and I wouldn't be the only one. Jane was holding Maura; while Brenda had her head down, eyes closed as she dealt with the horrible images.

None of the guys were staring at us, they didn't seem to be the bigoted type; in fact Provenza caught my eye and gave a gentle nod and a sad smile, getting a soft nod from me in return. I saw David murmur something to the Chief, who nodded tightly, while Tao and Buzz turned away and looked at the wall. Sanchez muttered something to Jane and Maura, getting a nod in return from them both, in fact only Flynn seemed unaffected, but then he'd had more time to get used to it.

After a few seconds, Natalie nodded into my shoulder, before stepping back. Her whisper was too low to be heard by anyone else.

"Thank you Tsarina" I reached out and our hands touched again, the skin to skin contact important right now.

"Always love" A bustle down the corridor announced the arrival of Maura's team, so we stepped back out of the room to give her team room to remove the body, as everyone looked around and took stock.

I was glad I'd come his morning. Natalie mentioned that Maura had told her just having Jane along at the scene had helped her deal with the stress, after what had just happened, I needed to be here for her.

Maura's team were quick and the body was rapidly bagged and wheeled out on a gurney for transport to the morgue, allowing us to be able to make our way back to the bedroom, where Brenda had been standing watching Maura's team at work.

As we walked in I heard some voices drift in from outside, a couple of uniforms talking about the victim as they walked past the window.

"Porn star's eh? Gives new meaning to head job" His partner was equally crass.

"Well, dykes don't give head, but the rug munching must have been mind-blowing, it sure blew her mind"

"All over the wall you mean…"

Their laughter faded as they walked away from the open window.

My fists balled and I felt my jaw clench at their words, not for what they said about lesbians, I'd heard it all before, but the crassness of their words about the victim and her partner, now having to deal with what had happened before her eyes… God damn it.

"Ladies and gentlemen if you please" I turned to look at the Chief, catching a glimpse of the rage in Jane's eyes at what we'd all so clearly heard. In fact most of us looked disgusted. The Chief's face was a calm mask, though her eyes were cold.

"Lieutenant Provenza, would you take a number of Black and Whites and conduct a search of that hillside visible up there please"

"Lieutenant Tao, would you, Sergeant Gabriel and Detective Sanchez please process the house. I would appreciate it if you would assist them please Agent Romanov, as you're here you might as well help out." I nodded.

"Buzz, if you would record anything of interest, starting with the drug materials in the living room; that would be appreciated" She then turned to the remaining members of the team.

"Lieutenant Flynn, Detective Rizzoli, before you start checking on the neighbours, I have a special task for you both if you would be so kind" I looked over, wondering what it was, I wasn't the only one. Her voice hardened.

"I would be grateful if you could convey in the clearest possible terms my deep official displeasure and my intense personal disgust regarding the comments made by those two officers" She looked both of them in the eye. "Please see to it personally"

Andy and Jane exchanged guarded but feral grins before Andy spoke.

"Chief, it'd be my, our, pleasure" I saw one or two nods from the rest of the team as they left.

"Alright everyone, let's get to it"

As Brenda and Maura stood talking quietly in the doorway, Julio and I started in the bedroom, while David and Michael moved in to take a closer look at the living room.

As he started on the bedside table, I opened the closet, finding a really diverse range of clothing, ranging from practical jeans and tops to things that covered less skin than my underwear, plus a collection of footwear that probably rivals Maura's, I'd never seen that many five inch heels in one place before, mostly boots and patent leather pumps, probably what they wore while working I guessed.

As I worked my way through the cupboard I heard a few snippets float in through the window, Jane in particular was in fine form.

"…everyone already knows you're a complete fucking disaster; why in God's name do you feel the need to advertise the fact…"

Flynn wasn't to be outdone though.

"…poor fucking excuse for an emotionally competent human being…"

I looked up to see Sanchez smirking, then caught Brenda's eye, she was smiling at Maura in a way that probably wasn't justified by the topic they were discussing.

"…recommend you for a bout of sensitivity training, but that'd require you to have some shred of human empathy to start with, you couldn't even fake it on your best day…"

Maura was trying to hide a smile and failing miserably.

"…are you naturally this fucked up or do you actually have to work at it…"

I smiled at Maura as the dressing down continued.

"…maybe a transfer to Harbour Division, fishing five day old floaters out of the water might give you time to learn a little fucking empathy, but then again, in your case maybe not…"

The voices started to recede as they moved away from the house.

"… if this is your idea of how to deal with victim's, then maybe a permanent transfer to records might be in order, paperwork doesn't care that you're a crass idiot…"

I looked across at Brenda and smiled.

"I'd call that mission accomplished Chief" Brenda went to say something when she was interrupted by Sanchez.

"Oh. My. God" We looked over to see him holding a really quite decent sized strap-on by the furthest extremity of one of the straps, the dildo hanging swinging below. "It was under the bed, um, it's a…" His voice died away. Of course Maura couldn't let that pass.

"It's a phallus-shaped stimulator equipped with straps, allowing it to be worn by the user, normally, but not exclusively, a female. Commonly called a strap-on, the earliest confirmed uses were in ancient Greece buts its use was widespread, with some suggestions that their origins go back even further, using phalluses made of wood, ivory or stone, probably with leather or even cloth straps"

Sanchez looked less than happy to be enlightened as Brenda tried desperately to hide a wicked smile at his predicament. His next words actually didn't help him much.

"Yeah, it's what lesbians use to get off" Maura however was on a roll, cheerfully oblivious to Julio's increasing discomfort.

"While yes, the traditional usage is between two females, many males allow themselves to be penetrated by women wearing them, allowing them to experience the act of penetration without the social stigma of homosexual activity. Apparently, according to recent studies into human sexuality, the practice is becoming more popular" Julio looked faintly green while Brenda couldn't resist.

"I think the lesson is don't ask questions you don't want answers to Julio" He nodded slowly, holding it out at arm's length, looking at it in some concern.

"Are they always that big?" he muttered.

Unfortunately Natalie chose just that time to walk back into the room, a preoccupied look on her face, just in time to hear his last comment.

"That's really not that large, they can apparently come in much larger sizes" She raised one eyebrow at him. "Why, feeling a little…threatened are we?" He looked offended.

"No, of course not" Demonstrating impeccable timing Maura stepped back into the conversation.

"Studies show that the average male penis in the United States is approximately 5 inches, whereas the average phallus sold in America is 7 to 8 inches in length. Perhaps Detective Sanchez speaks for the male population in expressing some concern, as it would appear that the average male isn't quite measuring up to the…challenge"

I thought of saying something, but was too busy trying desperately not to laugh at the expression on his face. Sanchez turned towards the group at the door, holding the strap-on at arm's length as it swung by the straps, almost as if he was offering it for inspection. Natalie couldn't let it pass.

"Thank you Julio, but no thanks. We have one of our own" I nearly choked, as much at her deadpan delivery as what she said. Maura smiled sweetly.

"As do we, but thank you for the thought Detective" Smiling, Brenda raised an eyebrow.

"Thank you Detective Sanchez, but I won't be needing it either so you can log that as evidence please"

Face quite red, he quickly dropped it on top of the bedside table, before making a show of checking through the dresser.

I looked over at the girls at the door, all of whom were sharing a satisfied set of smiles at Julio's expense, as it took our mind off the horrific scene around us. Finally Natalie spoke.

"Chief, the media's arrived and they're setting up for live crosses, so if you let me know what time you're leaving, I'll time a media conference for the same time across the street so you don't have to run the gauntlet"

"Oh for heaven's sake, is it really all that bad?" She nodded sadly.

"Afraid so Chief, I count seven local news crews, CNN and Fox, plus a bunch of newspapers and radio stations. There's enough there to make it difficult to get through. You might want to get your car moved away down the street so you don't get surrounded as you leave" Brenda looked stunned.

"You're joking aren't you Natalie?"

"Chief, we have a serial killer targeting beautiful women in LA. That alone is blood in the water to the media, especially given all the female celebrities who live here. Its tailor-made tabloid fodder you realise. '_Brad and Ange flee Hollywood to escape sniper terror_'; '_Kim tells of her sniper horror_', that sort of thing, the headlines practically write themselves" Brenda looked like she was going to argue the toss but Nat kept going.

"On top of that, there's the lascivious nature of this morning's attack, two lesbian adult actresses, one killed while they're having sex and dying in her lovers arms, that's enough on its own to send the media into overdrive when they find out and they will, someone's bound to talk" Natalie paused for a moment.

"In fact I wanted to ask you to put a guard on Ms Shorten, before some vulture gets to her, shoves a camera in her face and asks her how she feels about being drenched in her lover's blood when her head exploded while they made love" I swallowed, feeling the bile rise in my throat again at her words. "And some of them would do it, just to get a reaction on camera" Brenda looked horrified.

"I'll get some uniforms on her right away" Natalie nodded her thanks, before ploughing on.

"Then there's the fact that it's you leading the case Chief"

"What's that got to do with it?"

"You're the highest ranked woman in the LAPD, so you stand out from everyone else. You have an interesting track record here in LA which the media already know about and you're a beautiful woman, footage of you makes good vision on the evening news, which just stokes the public and media's interest even more"

"But that shouldn't have anything to do with it, I'm just trying to do my job is all" Brenda's was getting pissed. Natalie sighed, as we all watched. "Can't you just distract them and let me get on with finding the killer"

Natalie grimaced, obviously realising that Brenda wasn't getting the point and tried again.

"Brenda, you're in the town that spawned the OJ and Michael Jackson trials. They were media frenzies and that's what this one's turning into, I've tried desperately to keep it at bay, I'm still trying but it's getting out of hand. I'm good but I'm not a miracle worker. It's about to get a lot worse too"

"How can it get worse?"

"The media, with limited amounts to go on and looking to fill air time, will start looking at you, your past history and your unsolved cases. If we're not careful your handling of this will become the story, with every retired cop talking head appearing on chat shows to tell them that you're not handling the case right and that these women are dying because of your incompetence" The blood started draining from Brenda's face as the words hit home.

"From there it's a short step to digging into your past, your separation, the issues that Goldman raised, the accusations you faced in Atlanta and your time in the CIA. All of those counter-intelligence interrogations, your work in the Middle East, the Army of Allah case, all of them will get an airing, in the most unflattering light possible"

Brenda looked ashen as she stared at Natalie.

"How do you know about those…?"

"That's not important right now, but if I could find out about it, then they can too. And they will, unless we can change the story"

"Change it, how"

"We need to find the killer, so we can turn the media on them, cause unless you do, they'll turn on you" Brenda's mouth twisted in annoyance and sheer bad temper.

"And how exactly do you propose we do that?" Natalie's shoulders slumped, she'd got Brenda to realise how bad the situation was but she couldn't fix it.

"Brenda, I'm damned if I know. I wish I did. All I'm saying is, if we can't find something, anything to divert them, then despite my best efforts, the media outside? They'll turn from a crowd to a mob; and the person they'll want to lynch, well it might be you"


	37. Chapter 37

**A/N** I've been asked to give a better idea of what Natalie and Anastasia look like. I indeed have two beautiful muses who inspire me, so I thought I should post their images.

I am using images of these two women as story images; however FF's software is corrupting the addresses of the images on Photobucket so I can't link directly to them from the story.

If you make your way to Photobucket and search for Unicornff, you will be taken to my album which contains a selection of images of both Natalie and Anastasia.

I hope this helps the reader's enjoyment of the story.

**Deceptive interrogation**

Jane's viewpoint

I sometimes wonder about the Chief's background, did the CIA make her sneaky or was she like that originally?

This morning she'd breezed in, coffee in hand, wishing everyone a good morning in that southern accent of hers, dumped her enormous shoulder bag on her desk then turned right round and wandered back out into the squad room, where she stood in the middle of the room, happily chatting to everyone, teasing Flynn and Provenza about baseball and Tao about computers, she was so playful that it almost felt like she was gently verbally flirting with the team, which felt weird.

I got dragged into a passionate defence of the Red Sox, after she suggested that it might be time to change my allegiance to an LA team, much to everyone's amusement.

I was a bit surprised; Brenda wasn't normally this cheerful, leaving me wondering what the hell was going on. I noticed that the mood of the team had picked up dramatically as well; as if they knew something was going on, something was in the air.

I'd glanced over to Gabriel, caught his eye and looked the question at him, he'd leaned back and quietly murmured that when the Chief was like this it normally meant something good was about to happen.

After a few minutes of chatting Brenda had walked, no sashayed was a better word, her skirt swishing as she moved, over to the murder board, sliding the sniper stuff over to one side, revealing the second board behind it, covered in details of the warehouse attack.

"Lady and gentlemen, I do believe that it's time that we focused on something a little less intractable than the sniper, in this case our friends in the Blood Catorcies and their new best buddies the Los Zeta's" She looked around the room and smiled, no grinned, she was having fun, something was definitely up.

"As your aware, the Catorcie's new leader Darren Curtis, AKA Little Dog, has been playing both sides off against the middle, working with the Zetas, while still keeping in contact with the Sinaloa Cartel, the Catorcie's existing cartel partner. Now either he hasn't told his new buds the Zeta's about the arrangement or the Zeta's have agreed to let Little Dog keep stringing Sinaloa along until they feel comfortable in hitting Sinaloa and getting away with it" Flynn grinned.

"Gutsy play if he's not told the Zeta's, they won't take kindly to being played" Brenda smiled warmly at him.

"Exactly right Lieutenant and how do you think the Sinaloa Cartel will feel about it if they find out?" Flynn pulled a face.

"Well, the cartels have some pretty extreme methods of letting their unhappiness be known"

"And right again" She grinned happily. "So that suggests he thinks he can keep them both dancing to his tune" Sanchez smiled.

"Pretty gutsy, pretty stupid too"

"Either way, if the Zeta's know or if they don't the kicker here is that Sinaloa most definitely does not" She shrugged. "If they did well, what's left of Little Dog here would be decorating one of Doctor Isles slabs downstairs"

Gabriel looked from the board, covered in surveillance photos of Little Dog, back to the Chief.

"So what now?"

"Well, thanks to the excellent surveillance work done by our friends in the Gang Task Force, we know that Little Dog's been meeting with the Sinaloa rep on Monday afternoon's and the Zeta's rep on Thursday nights, which means we have about 24 hours before the Zeta's find out about us picking him up, if we do it quietly" Sanchez nodded.

"So we bring him in?"

"If you would be so kind, I understand he visits his sister and her new baby on Wednesday afternoons, so I'd like you, Sergeant Gabriel, together with Detective Sanchez and Detective Rizzoli to pick him up nice and quietly as he walks out the door" We all nodded.

"Quietly please, I don't want anyone realising we've got him. If he has anyone with him, grab them too and get them into isolation, I don't want Little Dog talking to anyone and no one knowing we have him, not until I have a chance to chat to Mr Curtis" She smiled as she looked around.

Lieutenant Provenza, could you please ask Agent Romanov to come and see me, this morning if at all possible. Lieutenant Flynn, could you see if Commander Reynolds from the Gang Task Force is available for a short meeting this morning, thank you. Tell him I need a small favour"

"Lieutenant Tao, could you please give my compliments to Commander Ruiz from SIS and see if he might be available for a few minutes sometime this morning, I have a favour to ask him as well" Brenda looked around the room, looking at each of us in turn, before coming back to me.

"Detective Rizzoli, you don't speak Spanish do you?" I shook my head.

"Sorry Chief, only the four t's"

"Four tee's?"

"Taco's, tamale's, tango and tequila" She smiled. "Not much call for it in Boston"

"Oh no, that's excellent, excellent. Detective Sanchez, would you be kind enough to come into my office please"

With a swish of skirts Brenda strolled into her office, a wary looking Sanchez in tow, leaving the rest of us wondering what the hell the Chief had in mind. When he emerged a while later he had a smile on his face, but refused to tell us why, saying it was on the Chief's orders and would say no more.

So it was that a few hours later we collared Curtis as he walked out of his sister's building, together with his driver, and drove them downtown. It went so smoothly that no one realised what had happened.

Gabriel took the driver down to Holding with instructions to keep him in isolation, while Sanchez and I walked Curtis into Interrogation Room 2 as per the Chief's explicit instructions before I went to tell her we were back.

As I walked into the Murder Room I could see Ana sitting in with Brenda, talking to the Chief as I walked up and knocked on the door.

"Chief, we've got Curtis in Interrogation 2 waiting for you"

"I take it no one's any the wiser that we have Mr Curtis" I shook my head.

"Nope, it went quietly, no one knows" I got the Chief's 1000 watt smile turned on me.

"Excellent work Detective, I don't 'spose we should keep Little Dog waiting" Brenda turned to Ana. "All ready Agent Romanov?" Ana stood, nodding at me.

"All set Chief"

We walked into the squad room, where Brenda paused next to Flynn's desk.

"Lieutenant Flynn, would you be kind enough to call Sergeant Garcia, Lieutenant Provenza, would you please call Detective Mendoza. Could you both let them know I need them ready to go in Interrogation Room 1 in five minutes please?" As they nodded, she turned back to me.

"Detective, could you please relieve Detective Sanchez, I just need to make sure he knows what he has to do" I nodded, not quite sure what was planned, but when the Chief's on a roll, who was I to get in the way.

I spent the next few minutes watching over Little Dog, who after the usual threats and come-ons lapsed into silence when he realised I wasn't going to say anything. I just leaned against the wall with my arms crossed and watched him, seeing the nervous tell tales under the supposedly calm exterior, the fidgeting, the jumpiness.

Truth be told I didn't like the layout of the interrogation rooms here, I don't like the tables, they allow the suspect to hide too much out of sight, the nervous shake of a leg, the hands, hidden under the table, the posture. I normally did interrogations in a room with just a chair for the suspect, while I stood back, watching their reactions with nothing to hide behind.

Here the table not only allowed them to hide, it was a psychological barrier as well, something they could put up between them and the interrogator, it wasn't my style but it wasn't my interrogation.

Truth be told, I was looking forward to watching Brenda do her thing. From what I'd heard, the Chief was at her best in here, enough so the rest of the squad was likely in the electronics room; they treated her interrogations as a spectator sport, complete with popcorn.

The door opened and the Chief strolled in, a file in her hand, followed by Ana, who looked at me as she turned to close the door, one eyebrow lifting, before she sat down next to the Chief. I walked around the room to stand behind Little Dog, just in case. Besides, it might make him a little more nervous.

"Hello Mr Curtis, I'm Deputy Chief Johnson, I'm sure you're wondering why you're here"

"All I wanna know is which of you three ho's is gonna suck my dick first, cause that's all I got for you, Dep-u-tee Jon-sahn"

"Well Mr Curtis, I'm sure your eagerness is understandable, given how little you're going to be getting on death row as an accessory to multiple murders"

"What you talking 'bout bitch? I didn't kill no one"

"Of course you didn't, that would require bigger balls than you have, wouldn't it, that's why you got your friends in Los Zeta's to do it for you"

"I dunno know what'cha talking 'bout bitch"

"Well, let's see what we might have to convince you why you're going to death row. Let's start with being an accessory to the murder of eleven people, including two police officers"

"Bitch, you wastin' my time, where's ma lawyer, I wanna lawyer"

"Yes, I'm sure you do" She smiled at him, watching him fidget, while Ana remained as still as stone.

"I do wonder though what your fellow Catorcie members will think when they learn that you were responsible for the deaths of nine of their fellow gang members Mr Curtis? Most gangs have strict rules about snitches and traitors"

"You got nothin' on me, you got nothin' I tell ya"

"That's not how it looks from here Mr Curtis. You have a rep, out on the streets, Little Dog, that's what they call you, isn't it"

"That's what ma people call me bitch" I could see his smirk in the mirror. "Tell you what, I'll let you call me Daddy while I fuck your fine lily white ass over this table" I took a step forward, but Brenda sent me back to the wall with a nod.

"Thank you for the offer Mr Curtis, but I suppose they call you 'little' for a reason. How did you get that name Mr Curtis, Little Dog" Her voice stretched the 'Little' out, pouring scorn over it.

"Doesn't sound like the name you'd give to a leader, Big Dog I can understand, but little?" Her eyebrow lifted. "When I think of little dogs I think of poodles, running round sniffing the asses of the top dogs. Are you a poodle Mr Curtis, sniffing the asses of the big dogs?"

"Fuck you bitch, I gonna fuck you up…" He started to rise from the chair, giving me the excuse to take a step forward and slam him back in his chair, hard. He twisted to look at me.

"Cunt, gonna fuck you too" I shrugged.

"Get out of the chair '_little_' dog and I'll show you who's the bitch. My bitch" The Chief's voice dragged his attention back to her.

"Like I said, you have a rep on the streets, '_Little Dog_'. A mid-level punk, not too bright, good at doing what other people tell you, not the sort of person to rise too high in the Catorcies, or anywhere else" Curtis said nothing, just staring back at her.

"Mr Curtis, I know you've been dealing with the Zeta's, you told them where and when all the senior people in the Catorcies would be, so they could kill them off, allowing you to take over. Promotion by assassination, isn't that what it was"

"Dunno, why don'tcha keep telling me, sounds like a good story"

"Oh it is; a story of a low level punk who got made an offer. Roll over on your fellow Catorcies, give them up to the Zeta's and they kill everyone above you, you'd end up in charge, while they held your leash" He said nothing.

"Tell me Mr Curtis, how long did it take you before you rolled over, gave your friends up? Five minutes? Three? Did it even take that long or did you give them up without a thought?"

"I ain't got nothing to say. Where's ma lawyer; I want ma lawyer and ma phone call" I watched as Brenda briefly reached up and massaged both temples with her fingers, before sitting back.

"I'm sure you do, they'll be here soon enough. So tell me '_little_' Dog, what happens to you when the rest of the Catorcies find out what you've done? You expect the Zeta's to protect you? Honestly?"

Curtis sat there, his arms folded as he stared back at Brenda; obviously he's decided to say nothing until his lawyer arrived.

Brenda went to speak when the door to the room opened, as Sanchez leaned in. Behind him I could hear raised voices one male, one female, both obviously agitated, speaking, well shouting really, in Spanish

"Chief, we've got a problem"

"What is it Detective, Mr Curtis here and I have so much to discuss" Sanchez looked across at Curtis for a moment, before looking back at Brenda.

"The problem is that we have two people here. They both asked for him, then realised they were both looking for the same person; it's not pretty"

"Oh for heaven's sake I can hear that, what are they saying?" Sanchez stepped further into the room, allowing the door to swing wider. Down the corridor we could see an attractive Hispanic woman with dark curly hair dressed in a pants suit, a briefcase on the floor next to her, standing going toe to toe with a fit looking Hispanic male, a bit older, also dressed in a suit, his arms folded as he listened to the woman's tirade.

"Well, it appears that the woman, Ms Mendez, is here to see Mr Curtis. The guy, Mr Garcia also is here to see Mr Curtis, but when they became aware of each other, well as you can see, it got ugly" As we watched Garcia started talking over the top of Mendez, as she got visibly more riled.

"Mr Garcia seems to be demanding to know who Ms Mendez is working for, that seems to be the same question Ms Mendez was asking Mr Garcia" Their voices got louder as the body language got more hostile. Brenda turned to where Curtis was sitting, staring at the scene through the door.

"Well Mr Curtis, which of your new friends do you want to see? Do you recognise either of them?" He sat there saying nothing.

"Mr Curtis, yoo hoo, Mr Curtis. Maybe one of them is from the Zeta's; they'd send someone wouldn't they? I wonder where the other one's from. Who else would be interested in getting to you to stop you talking?"

"Chief" It was Sanchez, drawing Brenda's attention back to the two in the corridor. "It seems that they've worked out that each of their organisations has dealings with Mr Curtis here, they don't sound happy about it either"

"Don't need to speak Spanish to see that" Brenda muttered, before turning back to Curtis. "Well, you want to see them, Little Dog?"

"Oh oh" I couldn't help it, as the woman stepped into the guys personal space, screaming at the top of her lungs, poking her finger into the guys chest repeatedly to make a point. As everyone turned to watch, the guy took a step back and went to slap her in the face, only to have his hand grabbed by Gabriel while Flynn stepped between the two combatants.

Tao moved in and forced the woman back as well, as they screamed insults and abuse past Flynn at each other.

"Oh for heaven's sake, close the damned door" As Sanchez stepped in and the soundproof door closed, silence descended on the room. We all turned to look at Curtis.

"Well Mr Curtis, it appears we have two organisations that can't wait to get to you. Could one of them be the Zeta's and the other the Sinaloa?" The Chief calmly stepped back to her seat and sat down facing him. "I'll bet they just can't wait to tell their bosses about your other new best friends" She smiled politely at him, her hands toying with the file on the table.

"Do you want to see a lawyer Mr Curtis, cause I'm sure they'd love to see you. No doubt they've got lots of questions their just dying to ask you, particularly about how long you've been playing both sides off against each other"

Curtis didn't look too happy; in fact he looked downright rattled.

"Do you know what the cartels do to people they think betrayed them Mr Curtis? They don't stop at killing the traitor, though their very creative about how they do that. Y'know; mutilations, beheadings, leaving your head on a pole in front of the other Catorcie's to send a message, that sort of thing" Brenda flipped the file in front of her open and pulled out a sheaf of photos, slapping each one down as she spoke..

"No, they go after the families, your sister and her new born daughter, your mother who I understand is still alive, your younger brother, whose doing time inside, your pretty young girlfriend; they'll all end up dead, sending a message is how they put it" She looked into Curtis' face as he stared at the images splayed on the table in front of him.

"Well, you won't talk to me, so you just sit there while we work out whose lawyer you get to see. It shouldn't be too long" She stood up, as did Ana. I could see Little Dog's face; he wasn't so brave now, not with his family on the line.

"Wait…" The Chief turned back, a question on her face; damn she was good at this.

"Yes Mr Curtis?"

"I don't wanna see them, any of them. Can't you get rid of them?" She frowned.

"Why, I can only do that if you revoke your right to counsel. Are you sure you want to do that? I mean, they'll probably have you walking out of here with them in no time at all. Don't you want to go with them?" I had to work hard to keep the smile from busting out across my face. Brenda even managed to sound concerned for him; she was really, really good at this.

"No, I don't, I don't wanna see them, I want my family protected"

"Mr Curtis, I can only do that if there's a deal in place, and I can't do that without you revoking your right to counsel. Do you formally revoke your right to counsel?"

"Yeah, alright, yeah, I revoke ok?"

"Brenda sat back down, as did Ana.

"Thank you Mr Curtis. I can arrange for your mother, sister and her daughter to be protected. The same goes for your girlfriend. I can also arrange for your brother to be relocated to another facility"

"What about me?"

"This is Special Agent Romanov of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, she can help you there; Agent Romanov?" Ana spoke for the first time since she walked in.

"Mr Curtis, in return for your cooperation, your complete cooperation, the Bureau is willing to offer you immunity from prosecution and to relocate you elsewhere under witness protection"

I stared, WitSec? No way! That was a really big deal, the Bureau must want the Zeta's bad to offer it and for Brenda to give up Curtis. I knew she really hated to let a criminal go, to give up Curtis when he was an accessory to eleven deaths, including two officers must have been hard.

"So I don't go to trial, I go somewhere the Zeta's can't find me or my family?"

"Mr Curtis, the Bureau has extensive experience in providing protection from the cartels for people who they want to find. They won't find you. Plus we will relocate your family"

"Ok, what I gotta do. You want something right?" Brenda and Ana both smiled, as the Chief spoke.

"Oh yes indeed, Mr Curtis, indeed we do"

An hour later, Curtis had given his first statement and several of the Bureau's Cartel specialist agents were talking to him, as the rest of us gathered back in the Murder Room.

I heard Brenda ask Provenza to get Mikki and Jose back up, as we discussed what had happened. Flynn got the ball rolling.

"So the scumbag rolled on his friends?"

"Yep, pretty much immediately, they offered him a route to money and power, with the alternative being a bullet; he didn't think too long on the offer"

"So he just walks? That doesn't seem right. He was responsible for two officer's deaths"

"Lieutenant Flynn, it's not my preferred solution, but yes, he will walk. On the other hand, we have him where we want him, so we have a chance to flip him and get to the Zeta's" Tao nodded.

"So what's the plan?"

"Curtis has a contact point for the Zeta's. The Zeta's want to hit the Sinaloa Cartel's distribution arm hard to hurt their profits, disrupting supply and driving business to the Catorcie's. We get him to contact the Zeta's and point him in the right direction, we might be able to wrap up the Cartel's enforcers who did the warehouse job" Gabriel looked sceptical.

"You think they'll use the same people Chief?"

"Probably, or at least some of the same ones as before. They've proved that they can get into California, obtain weapons and carry out the hit, before getting away. That speaks of a well-trained and disciplined group, not even the Zeta's would have too many like that. They'd have to have a number of English speakers as well, just to get around, so it's likely to be the same people"

We spent the next 15 minutes kicking around options, when the man and woman who'd been screaming at each other earlier walked back into the office. The Chief got up and walked over to greet them, before bringing them back to the group.

"Jane, Ana, this is Detective Mikki Mendoza from SIS and Sergeant Jose Garcia from the Gang Task Force, AKA our cartel lawyers. Mikki, Jose, Detective Jane Rizzoli, formerly of Boston Homicide and Special Agent Anastasia Romanov, our FBI liaison"

I found myself looking into the warm brown eyes of a very attractive woman with thick dark hair, in turn being frankly appraised as we shook hands. She was actually very pretty, certainly worth a second look.

"Nice job there, you had our suspect believing it" She smiled in return as I shook hands with Garcia, much bigger build, a tough guy.

"Thanks, it isn't every day I get to wear pinstripe suits and carry a briefcases, all I need is the $200 per billable hour invoice to go with it" They shook hands with Ana as the rest of the team congratulated them on a good job. Ana smiled and asked a question I'd been wondering about as well.

"Won't the defence lawyers have a field day with this; maybe call his evidence into question. We're not supposed to misrepresent ourselves as lawyers?" Brenda nodded.

"Very true, but at no time did I or anyone else suggest that Mikki or Jose here were lawyers, Mr Curtis assumed they were, but no one said they were" I nodded slowly, sneaky, very sneaky.

A thought occurred to me.

"What were you two talking about that got so heated? It certainly sounded genuine" They shared a look before laughing.

"Mexican soccer teams, we're both big fans. The loser here supports Atlas, the Foxes, while I support the Blue Machine, Cruz Azul." Mendoza grinned. "It can get a bit heated"

"Loser? Look whose where on the ladder Mendoza; that says it all" Mendoza shrugged.

"See what I mean?"

"Looked real to me" Ana nodded.

"Me too" Brenda smiled.

"That's why I checked if either you or Ana spoke Spanish, which you didn't, so you wouldn't tip him off. I know Curtis didn't as the surveillance had overheard him complaining about his contacts wanting to speak in Spanish" She smiled around the room.

"All in all, well done everyone, now all we have to do is bag the hit team and we'll have wrapped this one up" Gabriel looked at her, a little sceptically.

"Easier said than done Chief"

"David, where's your faith? You just have to trust me. What could possibly go wrong?" Flynn just shook his head as Provenza smiled a little wistfully.

"Now where have I heard that before?"


	38. Chapter 38

**Cartel busting**

Sharon's viewpoint

I was busy in my office working on the day's second cup of coffee and yet another revision to the LAPD's code of conduct when I got an unexpected call from Brenda.

"Sharon, can you spare a few hours out of the office this afternoon, hopefully we can wrap up the warehouse case" I thought about it for all of two seconds. Review paperwork or get out and do something useful.

"Sure"

"How about we meet in the foyer at noon, we can all take the same car then" All?

"Where are we off to Brenda?"

"We're heading over to the Wilshire Federal Building; we're going to be the guests of the Bureau for a while" Curiouser and curiouser. Ah well, I'm sure I'd learn more this afternoon.

"Ok, see you then"

I was met in the foyer by Brenda, who told me that we were waiting for Natalie, who popped out of an elevator not 10 seconds later. After exchanging greetings we strode off towards the car park for the 15 minute drive through moderate traffic to the Federal Building.

On the way Brenda explained that they had flipped the new leader of the Blood Catorcie's and fed information to Los Zeta's that their bitter rivals the Sinaloa Cartel were working with another street gang to process a new and much larger shipment of cocaine, in part making up for the one lost when the Zeta's had shot up the drug transhipment point run by the previous Catorcie's leadership.

They had passed info highlighting that the deal would involve members of both Sinaloa and the other street gang, giving the Zeta's a hopefully irresistible incentive to hit the lab.

The fake lab had been set up by the FBI and LAPD in an old light manufacturing building up in the foothills of the Valley well away from prying eyes, staffed by a mix of FBI agents and LAPD officers. The entire area was under surveillance so it was expected that with luck we could bag the same people who had hit the warehouse.

It all sounded promising and by the time we arrived and had been admitted to the Bureau's operations room it was obvious that a lot of work had gone into it.

We were met by Anastasia, who walked us through, introducing us to the Bureau's senior people, many of whom I already knew, plus a Marine Corps Colonel who was in charge of a group of Marines running radio gear over in a corner of the room.

As we chatted, Anastasia reported that LAPD's Tactical Response team and the Bureau's local Hostage Rescue Team was on site and well hidden overlooking the site. They were in contact with the agents and officers inside the building, ready to alert them when things started to happen. That sounded a bit risky so I turned to Anastasia.

"What happens then, there's not a lot of cover in that building, especially if they bring the sort of firepower they did last time" Anastasia nodded.

"I had the same question Sharon. Apparently they moved several sandbag-filled shipping containers inside to provide cover; I was promised that they would stop even a Barrett AMR, so they should be fine even against concentrated assault rifle fire. In addition, they moved anything combustible out of there so there should be almost no chance of fire"

Natalie was looking over curiously at the Marine's.

"What are the Marines here for?" Anastasia shrugged.

"It was agreed, in view of the sort of people we expect the Zeta's to send, that we needed specialist support, so they're providing encrypted communications, surveillance and apparently some airborne assets" She nodded to the image showing the building from up high on the large screen in the centre of the main wall. "That's from a Marine Corps drone that's circling over the facility from really high up, giving us real time surveillance of the site" I nodded.

Surrounding the main screen were several others showing the site from a number of difficult camera angles, two looking back down the canyon from the building, another two obviously concealed in trees looking back at the fake lab.

"I take it we don't know when it's supposed to happen?" Brenda shook her head.

"We passed on that the drugs would be on site between 1 and 4 this afternoon, so that gives us a three hour window. I expect they won't turn up too early, in case things are late getting' started, so figure maybe around 2 or a bit after"

Over the next hour, I circulated, chatting to Bureau personnel I knew, drinking poor quality coffee and munching on bland institutional sandwiches as we waited.

I watched as the Bureau's LA Chief, Assistant Director Martinez, walked up to chat to Brenda, although the conversation must have been a bit forced. Martinez had last seen Brenda with Fritz Howard, who he'd been close to. Now he was talking to Howard's almost ex and looked like he was finding it awkward.

I wandered over to join the conversation, thanking Martinez for his hospitality, which changed the subject and steered it towards safer ground. I noticed Brenda wearing a tight, polite smile, nothing like her usual. As I chatted to Martinez she gave me a small nod when he wasn't looking.

After he drifted off, to everyone's relief, Brenda leaned in and spoke softly for my ears only.

"Thank you Sharon, coffee and dinner is on me next time"

"Not a problem Brenda honey, it didn't look like it was the easiest of conversations"

"You can say that again" she muttered, before turning to offer a genuine smile to a Bureau agent offering another dreadful coffee.

Finally, about a quarter past 2, a Bureau agent spoke up, a green military issue radio handset to his ear.

"Heads up, surveillance reports we've just had a white sedan park down the main access road, driver's not getting out"

In response, the drone's camera covering the building swung dizzyingly across the landscape, before settling on a white late model car, parked by the side of the road. Far enough away to not draw suspicion but close enough to spot any vehicles making their way to the site.

Director Martinez stepped into the centre of the room and spoke, drawing everyone's attention.

"Ok people, looks like it might actually be going down. Tell surveillance to watch that car, but stay covert" he turned to a man in LAPD tactical blues.

"Pass the word to the spotter teams on the ridges, tell them to stay sharp"

The tension racked up over the next few minutes, until a white 4x4 was spotted making its way past the sedan before turning left onto a side fire trail that led up the ridge overlooking the site. A minute later a second vehicle, this time a silver SUV appeared, again passing the spotter before turning right along another fire trail, this time leading up the ridge on the opposite side of the canyon from the first spotter.

As the drone's camera pulled back, we could see both vehicles stop just out of sight of the building, before single individuals exited both vehicles and made their way forward to watch the site from the elevated vantage point of the ridge tops.

At a quick request the camera zoomed in on one of the men, showing him moving forward carefully, binoculars in hand, making his way to a small clump of shrubs overlooking the canyon. I was stunned by the clarity, it was far in advance of the YouTube videos that I'd seen on the evening news reporting from Afghanistan and Iraq, it looked like we were no more than 30 feet above him.

You could easily see the Hispanic features, he was wearing jeans and a polo shirt and had a radio clipped to his belt. Pulling back, the camera focussed on the other ridge line, searching for the other observer, finding him leaning against a tree scanning the area down near the building for signs of life.

At a radioed order, one of the agents inside the building wandered out and lit a cigarette, leaning against the wall against the main door, easily seen by both observers. It must have been enough as one of the observers pulled his radio off his belt and spoke into it.

"Can we intercept it" It was one of the bureau agents. One of the Marine's looked up from his radio.

"Trying, but it's encrypted, you can buy military-grade encrypted radios in electronics stores anywhere these days" He shrugged. "They're keeping it short, smart play, shorter the messages the harder it is to isolate it. It's nothing we can't break given a bit of time but not in real time, sorry"

Martinez spoke up.

"Doesn't matter, it's going down, we can use the decrypts later, once we get them in court"

A tense few minutes later the surveillance team watching the entrance road reported two delivery vans pass them by. One marked UPS and the other FedEx. Brenda leaned in.

"Smart move, no one looks twice at parcel delivery vans anymore" I nodded.

"No one said they were stupid" As the camera tracked them up the road towards the fake lab the agents inside were told to get ready to move into cover.

Martinez conversed with his senior people, including the liaison to the LAPD's Tactical Response team, before turning to the Marine Colonel.

"Colonel Henry, could we please have your support elements moved into position?"

"Yes sir" The Colonel turned to his radio operators. "Inform Bravo Alpha 1 and 2 to launch immediately" Natalie, Brenda and I shared a confused look, before we turned to look at Anastasia, who was standing next to us. She in turn shrugged helplessly.

"I don't know, they've kept a lot of this very need to know, I guess they think I don't"

As we watched, the vans pulled up out of sight of the building, with four men stepping out of each. One group of four hid out of sight, while the second group made their way carefully around the back of the building, leaving a driver in each van. Martinez had had enough.

"Get everyone inside cover now" The order went out over the military's radios, no doubt everyone inside the building was taking cover before it was finished. Martinez kept issuing orders.

"Get the surveillance team ready to move; the moment it goes down I want the access road closed and that spotter taken down. Tell the teams on the ridges the same deal; take the spotters there down as well"

The camera zoomed in enough to see that the group at the front were each carrying assault rifles, looked like M16s, with one carrying a rocket launcher.

"Is everyone inside in cover?"

"Yes sir, they report they are"

"Get ready everyone"

As the tension built we saw the team at the rear set up with a clear line of sight to the building's rear door, obviously to cut down anyone trying to flee that way while the four men at the front moved into position to pour fire in through the door.

Without warning, the man with the rocket launcher dropped to one knew and fired a missile straight into the building's open loading bay roller door, where it hit something and exploded. I could hear a mutter of concern run through the room as we wondered about the officers inside.

The rest of the attackers began firing into the building, either through the open door or right through the graffitied metal walls of the building.

Martinez and at least two others were shouting for people to move, with orders being passed over radios and via cell phones.

At a word from the Colonel, the camera swung back to the main road, to see an 18 wheeler with a white van following moving up the road towards the site. As the semi passed the car and forged ahead, the van schreeched to a stop and the side door slammed open, as at least four officers jumped out with weapons drawn and rushed the white car.

The camera followed the semi as it made its way up the road, before swinging broadside across it and shutting down, completely blocking the exit. We could see the driver jumping down and racing back down the road. Meanwhile reports came flooding in.

"Surveillance team reports the car drivers in custody"

"East ridge spotters in custody"

"Blocking team driver's safely away"

"West ridge spotter's down; he tried shooting his way out"

"Colonel, can we see the west ridge please" At a nod the camera swung up to the ridge and scanned along it, showing a man sprawled, his chest leaking red, a pistol lying next to him, as two camouflaged officers moved in to check on him. The image was almost frighteningly real and clear in technicolour.

On the secondary screens the attackers were still firing into the building, obviously they hadn't heard the shooting on the ridge over the sound of their own guns.

"Move the tactical teams into position" I looked to see Martinez talking to the LAPD officer and another man, who nodded and picked up radios.

As the camera swung back up and covered a wider area, we could see several vans racing up the main road, followed by a convoy of Black and Whites. Martinez nodded.

"Time to let 'em know we're here. Turn on the speakers" He picked up a microphone, keying it a few times before speaking.

"This is Assistant Director Martinez of the Federal Bureau of Investigations. You are surrounded, drop your weapons and you won't be harmed" He repeated it in Spanish, then repeated both the English and Spanish again.

On the screens you could see the see the Zeta's looking around frantically, looking for anyone who might be seen, looking for targets.

"Drop your weapons and put your hands up and you won't be harmed. If you resist you will be fired upon" Once again a Spanish translation followed.

As we watched, we could see the man with the rocket launcher pull out a radio and yell into it, getting more and more agitated as he received no answers.

Martinez tried again in both languages.

"Your associates have been arrested, you are surrounded, drop your weapons and surrender"

I leaned in to Brenda.

"I don't think they're going to go quietly, do you?"

"Almost certainly not, their used to executing people who surrender to them, they probably think it'll happen to them here" Natalie nodded.

"He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword" Anastasia snorted in response.

"More like die by a bullet, I'm wondering when Martinez's going to order the snipers to start taking them down"

On the main screen, we could see the group at the back of the building running round the side, heading for the front to join up with the rest. Their parcel vans started moving to meet them in the front of the building. As we watched they rendezvoused and there was a quick discussion as the rest of their men scanned around them, before they started boarding the vehicles.

"This is your last chance, either surrender or face the consequences of your actions" Repeating it in Spanish got no better reaction. One of the agents turned to Martinez.

"Should we order the snipers to disable the vehicles sir?" Martinez shook his head.

"They're too close to our men in the building, they seem to have forgotten them, but I don't want them getting desperate too close to the building, let them find out the roads blocked" He turned to the Marine.

"Colonel Henry, is the reception committee waiting?" The Colonel looked to one of his men and got a thumb's up, before turning back to Martinez.

"Indeed it is, just give the word Director"

As the two vans accelerated down the road and away from the building, the drone camera focussed on the semi blocking the road, the Zeta's were about to find out they were trapped. You could see heavily armed members of the LAPD and FBI tactical teams scattered around the semi, covering the road. Another screen was showing the road from ground level, obviously set up by the guys on the ground.

As we watched, the first of the vans raced around the last corner, before slamming the brakes on at the sight of the road block in front of them, the second barely avoiding crashing into the back of the first.

As we watched, the Zeta's piled out of the vans and hit the ground prone, obviously prepared to make a fight of it. This could get ugly very, very quickly. The Zeta's were outnumbered but were heavily armed and this could turn into a bloodbath. Martinez spoke again.

"Colonel, could you please send in your forces, front and back"

I looked at the drone's coverage but couldn't see any Marines; I was wondering if he had troops on the ground when I caught a flash of movement at the edge of the camera coverage.

As I watched a heavily armed helicopter moved into view beyond the semi-trailer as the drone's camera pulled back. I heard Ana's stunned voice.

"Holy shit! It's a Cobra, Oh my God, they're just fucked"

I could see the Zeta's staring at the menacing helicopter as it hovered there facing them. Several of the Zeta's started moving back, not that I could blame them, I'd heard of what an attack helicopter could do, let alone to unarmoured men in the open.

As they started to move back, in the screen showing them from ground level I saw another helicopter rise over the hills behind them and drift down towards where they were, boxing them in.

From this angle, the Cobra looked like some malevolently evil insect, studded with weapons under little wings with a deadly-looking long barrelled cannon under the nose swinging back and forward from one man to another. I heard Brenda's comment from beside me, in an exceedingly dry voice.

"Well, I think it's safe to say they're completely outclassed, outgunned and out of options. Let's hope they realise that, I really would like someone left to stand trial"

As we watched, several of the Zeta's stood up and dropped their weapons, holding their hands above their head. I can't say I blamed them; to me those hovering helicopters looked like hungry death just waiting to feast.

Unfortunately their leader started screaming insults at his men, grabbed one of the dropped assault rifles and started shooting at the nearest helicopter, causing the rest of the Zeta's to run from him as fast as they could, desperate to avoid what was coming, all except another who, inspired perhaps or overtaken by a suicidal madness, also started shooting at the other helicopter.

The cannons of the two helicopters each swung towards a target and spat a couple of rounds, only a few but enough to tear a man apart like a broken child's doll. As far as I could tell, their defiance had got both of them nothing but a swift, horrific, meaningless death.

The rest of the Zeta's cowered on the ground as the nose mounted cannons on the Cobra's swung back and forward over them. As we watched, the tactical teams moved in and started cuffing the surviving Zeta's.

Over the sounds of well wishing, cheering and high fives, I heard Martinez demand a status update on the men in the building, who turned out to all be in one piece. At that I smiled myself, I'd been worrying about that very thing, it was good to see it worked out. I turned to see Natalie and Brenda standing there chatting to Anastasia. Natalie was speaking as I re-joined the group.

"Well, that's got to be one of the more unusual arrest videos I've ever seen, even if I wish I hadn't seen the effect of that cannon on those two" Ana nodded.

"Yeah, it's pretty bad, but they shot first" She shrugged. "Stupid move, it cost them big time" Brenda nodded quietly.

"Natalie would you and Anastasia please do me a favour?" They both turned to her.

"Sure Brenda, what is it?"

"Would you both please go and obtain a copy of all of the video footage of today's operation, we'll need it for evidence" Anastasia looked pensive.

"I doubt Martinez will be too happy, but it was your case before the Bureau got involved, so I don't think he'll say no" Brenda smiled happily, before turning to Natalie again.

"Once we get it, I'd like you to cut some footage to give to the media, leaving out the more gratuitous violence, as soon as you can please" Natalie looked surprised.

"Give it, to the media? Why?" Brenda simply smiled at her.

"Natalie, I'm disappointed. You did say, to use your words, that we needed something, anything, to divert the media" She looked at me and winked.

"I have to say, if you can't divert the media from the sniper case for a week or two with video footage of a terrorist attack by Mexican drug cartel enforcers on US soil and their subsequent arrest by a combined operation featuring the LAPD, the FBI and the USMC, featuring the use of attack helicopters in a civilian operation, then you're not half the media manager I thought you were" Natalie was speechless for a few seconds, before spluttering.

"Brenda, you, you planned this? You planned all of this, just to get the media off your back?

Brenda laughed, before she looked away from an obviously stunned Natalie to me and smiled at the expression I was wearing..

"C'mon, Sharon we missed a decent lunch and I promised I'd be the one buying" Turning back to Ana and Natalie, she smiled at them once more.

"I'd invite you both, but I think you're going to be very busy this afternoon"


	39. Chapter 39

**A/N** I'd been reminded that my smut content was way down on what it should have been for an M rated fiction on , so here's a little more. I promise to be more diligent in future. :)

**Disclaimer**. This story is rated M for a reason, this chapter being one of them.

This chapter contains depictions of consenting adults doing what consenting adults do when they feel like it, so if sexual content isn't your thing, please skip the chapter and move on.

I've tried to write this story so these chapters aren't completely integral to the storyline, however skipping them means that you won't get the full character development.

As always, the choice is yours.

**Winding down**

Anastasia's viewpoint

We were sitting in front of the television, but neither of us was paying it any attention. It was getting late and we were curled up on the couch, still working.

Nat had her iPad open and was scanning news sites for articles on the LAPD and either bookmarking ones that needed to be responded to or making note of which journalists to contact. I had my work laptop open and was working through the emails that I hadn't got to during the day. I heard a small sigh from Nat as she shifted on the lounge, we'd been at it for more than an hour and a half and I still had more to get through.

Back when we were in Seattle, not long after we'd come out, I'd overheard a couple of vice cops speculating on our love life. The way they described it, we fucked from the moment we walked through the door at home till we fell unconscious, then backed up for another round before work, never getting out of bed on the weekends.

I snorted quietly to myself, if only they knew. Here we were, late on a Thursday night and we were still working, something that happened more often than not. The move to LA had meant more money and prestige, but it also meant more work, a lot more. We did as much as we could on week nights so that we could have as much of the weekend free as possible, to spend together or with friends.

Brenda's little spectacular with the Zeta's this afternoon hadn't helped, putting us both behind in our work.

Mind you, when the video package Natalie had worked late putting together went out tomorrow, it was going to be a media sensation. Fortunately it would be shared with the Bureau's LA media manager and a Marine Corps Public Affairs Officer, so it wouldn't completely fall on Nat's shoulders.

Looking over at Nat, I could see her teeth working on her bottom lip as she read. Nat would pull cute silly little faces while reading, so wrapped up in what she was doing that she didn't realise it, but I found them endearing.

I was about to tease her about it again when her email notification went off, which surprised me; it was almost ten and a bit late for a work email. Opening it, Nat grinned, before looking up to say something, catching me looking at her. She looked a question at me but I just shook my head.

"Have you got anything planned for this Sunday Tsarina" I thought for a moment.

"Nothing planned, I was thinking we could try and do lunch with Brenda somewhere out, we promised we'd try and reach out to her"

"Yep, but this works even better; the forecast for the weekend's very hot, so Maura's just emailed to invite us to a pool party at their place this Sunday. She's inviting Brenda and Sharon as well" I nodded.

"Works for me, do I need to make anything to bring along?"

"She didn't say, but I'll ask" Natalie busied herself replying to Maura's email, while I started shutting down the laptop, I'd done enough for one night.

"I've asked, so we should know soon" Noting my laptop shutting down she raised an eyebrow. "Had enough?"

"Yeah, it's been a long, busy day and I'm over it for tonight, besides, look at the time" Nat glanced up, it was five to ten.

"Oh, I didn't realise; it's been a long day, not helped by spending two and a half hours in that inter-agency disaster comms meeting this morning. Seriously, if we get the sort of earthquake their talking about, getting people to check their phone for updates to the California Disaster Plan Facebook page and Twitter accounts will be a pretty low order priority, assuming there's still a net connection available" I smiled.

"True, but who was it said that committees become self-perpetuating machines, their main focus being justifying their existence? Someone sitting here as I recall" She nodded.

"I know, I know, but I really didn't think it would be that big a waste of my time, even before this afternoon's bombshell" She looked a little wistful. "Y'know, I wish it was Saturday tomorrow, then we could sleep in" I nodded.

"Tired?"

"A little"

"Me too" I smiled to myself. "Why don't you wrap that up, then we can head inside" She gave me a little sideways glance.

"Are you trying to get me into bed Tsarina? I thought you were tired?" I grinned at her.

"Not that tired"

"Let me finish this article, I really need to sit down with this journalist and educate them on how we actually do business. She's suggesting the LAPD operates like a police state" She paused, her voice taking on a suggestive tone.

"Y'know what I really, really feel like right now?" I looked over at her, deciding to tease her a bit.

"Me?" She rolled her eyes at me, though a little smile broke out.

"That's for later. I was thinking some more of that chocolate chip ice cream we got for last Sunday lunch. It'd be a shame to let it go to waste" I grinned.

"It's about this point I have to remind you how much you hate gym work and how many calories are in that ice cream" She gave me a pretty pout.

"I'm sure you could help me work off some calories. Anyway what are you saying Ana, are you saying I'm getting fat?" I ran my eyes over her.

"I don't know, you might be, I'd have to conduct an inspection to find out" She looked at me through half closed eyes.

"What sort of inspection?"

"A very close, personal, hands-on inspection" She smiled softly at me.

"Mmm, that sounds nice, I'd be up for that" I leaned in for a quick kiss, before she pulled away.

"Go away Tsarina, I'm not doing it on the sofa again when we have a perfectly comfy bed available in the next room, besides the last time I ended up with a sore neck" I snickered.

"Amongst other things…" She laughed.

"Why don't you head to bed, I'm just going to log out and I'll be up in a minute" Her voice changed, getting a little lower. "Don't start without me"

"Nah, why would I do that when I've got you to take care of me?"

"And you love it"

"About as much as you do too"

"Go, I meant it about not doing it on the lounge. Beat it" Laughing I got up, snatching another kiss before traipsing off to bed.

I stripped off, hanging the suit up for dry cleaning and tossing everything else in the laundry basket in the bathroom, before making my way back to bed.

I flipped the sheets off the bed; it was warm enough that we didn't really need them, especially as we normally slept cuddled together, generating more than enough warmth, especially compared to the cool nights back in Seattle. It was another thing I liked about LA; you didn't need to rug up anywhere near as much.

I was starting to get a little impatient, when Natalie appeared in the doorway, wearing absolutely nothing at all.

I ran my eyes up and down her, admiring her all over again. She was beautiful and I still wanted her, as much as I did when we first got together. Back then it was all new and hungry and urgent. Now it was familiar and slow but the hunger was still there.

We'd gone from learning what turned each of us on, to applying that knowledge, we didn't have to wonder if the other person liked something, we'd spent four years finding out what we liked, by which time I'd basically come to the conclusion that if it involved Natalie and I naked then I liked it, a feeling she returned equally.

"So, do I look like I've put weight on?" Her tone was soft and sultry. I pursed my lips, pretending to consider the question.

"I can't tell, not when your all the way over there, you'll have to come closer and let me have a close examination" Smiling Nat wandered over to the dresser and picked up a couple of hair ties, pulling her hair into a high pony tail then putting another one in lower down the tail, causing me to shiver a little.

She hated her hair getting in the way, so she normally tied it up, even though I loved it when she leaned over me and her lovely thick hair cascaded down like a golden curtain blocking out everything except her face. Tying it up meant we weren't getting much sleep, at least not anytime soon.

Walking over to the bed, she slid onto it, kneeling, before pushing me gently onto my back and moving to straddle my hips. I automatically reached out and linked hands with her as she leaned in for a kiss, ending up lying on top of me, my hands pressed back on either side of my head. We just lay there, kissing and feeling for a couple of minutes, there was no need to hurry, we had plenty of time; we just enjoyed having each other so close.

Eventually she ended up lying on me with her head on my shoulder, my hands making meaningless patterns on her back, just happy to be together. It's in these times that we're most open, when we can say anything, no matter how outrageous and get away with it. Sometime we say things to try and shock the other, each knowing it'd never happen but happy to tease the other.

We'd been like this the night that I told her a threesome with us and her younger sister sounded interesting. She'd just laughed and told me that I had enough trouble handling one Dearing, two would kill me. She was right too.

Truth be told, I didn't want her sister, or anyone else, I had perfect lying right here in my arms, why look elsewhere? It was fun to tease though.

A week ago she'd confessed that she found Chief Johnson's voice a total turn on, that she could listen to it all day. If Brenda Leigh turned up the southern accent to 11 and whispered dirty talk into her ear she'd probably just melt; honestly from the way she was talking I'd bet Brenda could have had her come with just her voice, which had been an interesting and extremely hot mental image all of its own.

Nat snuggled deeper into my shoulder and almost purred, she was comfy and didn't want to move. Sometimes she reminds me of a big cat, all sleek and shiny and luxurious. She toyed with my nipple, making me shiver, causing her to smile as she spoke.

"You know, I still can't make up my mind if I want Jane or Maura more. It's frustrating, I'd do either of them in a heartbeat but I can't choose which one first" I smiled softly, we'd been debating this one for a while, idle speculative fantasy, not hard given how beautiful they both are, even if Jane goes out of her way to hide it.

"I'm coming round again, I think it's Maura I'd want first" She lifted her head to look at me.

"Oh, what happened to being taken by Jane over a desk; that was your preference last time?" I shrugged gently, not wanting to dislodge her from my shoulder.

"I decided I'd prefer to see her bending you over and doing you instead, while Maura and I watched" I felt a shiver run though Natalie at the image I'd suggested. Truth be told I made up most of these on the spot to get a reaction, I suspected she did much the same, but as far as we were concerned it was all a piece of harmless foreplay, one we both enjoyed. Natalie kept it going.

"Well, we might get a better look this weekend; a swimsuit doesn't leave much to the imagination"

"And which one are you planning to wear?"

"The white one" I smiled, that was one of my favourites to see her in, it didn't cover all that much.

"Ooh, I like that one" I felt as much as heard her chuckle.

"I know; that's why I'm wearing it" I chuckled at her tone.

"I must have been a good girl then"

"I actually prefer you when you're a bad girl" I laughed at her tone.

"I can be very good, when I want to be" I heard her voice, a low purr.

"And I can be very bad" No sooner had she said it than she leaned over and grazed my nipple with her teeth, causing me to shudder and gasp. "Sorry" she said, not sounding the slightest bit sorry.

"Sure you were, I think I'm going to have to take matters into my own hands"

"Good, it's not fair that I have to do all the work"

I smiled, before levering myself up on one arm, sliding her off me and ending up on our sides as I leaned in for a kiss. We kissed for a while as our hands wandered, touching, tweaking, soothing and teasing, before I slid a little down the bed and took a nipple into my mouth, swirling to tongue around it while I played with the other with my fingers.

I could hear her quiet groan, as her hands buried themselves in my hair, pushing me into her chest. I teased and licked and tongued and sucked the nub until it stood up erect, before moving on to the other, tweaking and toying with the first to keep it nice and hard.

I didn't care how long I was there, as Nat's moans and groans became louder little by little as I moved my mouth from one to the other. Her body was starting to writhe as I pushed her onto her back, using my weight to hold her down. Taking the opportunity, I slid my right hand down her body, teasing over her torso and sliding it lower.

Deciding to be a little cruel, I teased her, my hand sliding down between her thighs, which spread open to welcome me, before sliding them onto her inner thighs, to draw meaningless patterns there, teasingly close to her. I could hear her moans and whimpers as she thrust her hips up, trying to get me closer, but I held off.

Nat must have realised what I was doing, as, with a frustrated groan, she arched herself off the bed and twisted, forcing me off her and onto my back as she slid her legs over me, straddling my thighs as she attacked my breasts, not that I complained.

I could feel the leaking wetness smearing onto my thighs where she rested as she returned the favour, lavishing warm, wet attention to my nipples. I let my head fall back, loving the attention, lost in the pleasure she was giving me.

I felt her shifting above me, before she forced a leg between my thighs, as I thrust my hips up, desperate for the contact, my clit needed the friction, anything to ease the burn.

"Uh uh Tsarina, not yet" I opened my eyes to see Natalie looking at me, her eyes dark and wide, as she paused to swipe her tongue over my nipple, sending a spasm though me.

Slipping off me she moved to the head of the bed, moving around as her face loomed above me upside down, her kisses light on my eyelids and the tip of my nose, before we reached out and kissed, our tongues slipping past one another, duelling playfully as we both hummed in harmony.

Reluctantly pulling away, Nat moved slowly down, as her body loomed over me, allowing me to kiss her chin and reaching out to nibble at her neck, as she did the same. We'd done this so often it didn't matter who was on top, we knew how to make it last, slow and steady, her lush body poised above me, her nipples dragging though my hair and across my face as her lips sought out mine, teasing them into hard points.

I happily returned the favour, my hands running along her sides as I swung between one dangling breast and the other, before taking one between my teeth and tugging gently, causing a moaning groan to emerge from Natalie, before she returned the favour, making me squirm and gasp.

We must have been like that for a couple of minutes, it may have been longer but we were lost in a haze of pleasure, each doing something that the other would mimic, filling the room with moans and groans and gasps which made us more determined to drive the other even further.

Eventually, through tugging gently at Nat's sides, feeling the ribs under the skin, I let her know I wanted her to keep moving, allowing me to move down her torso as she did the same.

I got to run my tongue across her smooth stomach, tasting the slight salty taste of her sweat, mixed with her own very individual taste, before her belly button hove into view, allowing me to circle it with my tongue, before driving it in and out, then latching my mouth across it and sucking gently, as the tongue teased and ticked.

I couldn't do it for long as she was doing the same thing and I couldn't resist the ticklish feelings as well as she could. Eventually I gave in and had to stop as the giggles started.

"Ok, ok, you win, stop, please" I felt her let loose before a low throaty chuckle drifted up from down the other end of my body. She always won that little contest, but we didn't care.

Nat moved further down, her tongue setting my skin on fire as she moved closer and closer to where I so desperately wanted her to be, as I licked and gently nipped at her body as it moved slowly further over me.

In one of those stupid moments you have that you can't explain, every time we did this, I had a flashback to the start of Star Wars, the first time the enemy ship appears above the camera, seemingly endless as it flies past. I had the exact same thought every time she moved above me like this, her body moving so slowly it seemed endless as I gently made love to the length of her as it slid past.

Finally she was poised above me, my arms wrapped around her thighs, her weight resting comfortably on me and her forearms, I could smell her heat, see the wetness waiting for me as I felt her warm breath on my centre. I leaned forward, my tongue flicking gently across her lips, feeling her shiver above me, her weight settling even more on me as she relaxed, her head dipping between my thighs.

Then her tongue dived into me and I shuddered, we'd been building up to this for what seemed like ages, but was probably 20 or 30 minutes, gently raising each other higher and higher, till the anticipation was almost painful.

Giving in to the sensation, I thrust my head forward and latched onto her lips, sucking them gently into my mouth, tasting her, feeling her juice on my cheeks, her spicy scent in my nostrils, I couldn't get enough.

I heard a needy groan, before I felt Natalie using her fingers to gently prise my lips open, exposing me to her greedy, demanding tongue.

I would have writhed in delight, but her weight kept me still, as she drove inside me, swiping up the leaking wetness that had been building for ages, as greedy for me as I was for her.

I let out a long groan as she found my clit, rolling it with the tip of her tongue, as I felt my need ratchet up another notch she pulled away. Natalie knew exactly how to drive me higher without pushing me over the edge; it was a game we'd played so very often, one we both loved.

Unable to resist, I latched onto her lips again, kissing deeply, before sliding my tongue inside, seeking entry as far as I could thrust. I kissed and gently sucked at her labia, trying to tease and taste ever part of her, gently teasing and licking and kissing, slow and gently, trying to build her up slowly, not rushing it.

I felt my own need growing, as Nat's tongue slowly swiped over my clitoris again, gently but firmly, I swear I was so sensitive I could feel every pore on the surface of her tongue. I had to let go as my head fell back and I moaned, unable to concentrate on anything beyond the flash of heat that raced through me.

Nat backed away from my clit and returned to licking and sucking my labia, easing me back down again, allowing me to regain my senses and return to her. I reached out and pulled her lips back, opening her to me, letting my eyes run over her, seeing her clit standing proudly out of its hood, I couldn't resist and slowly, gently started licking her clit.

At the first touch she shivered, a low moan coming from her, I could feel her panting as her chest worked against my stomach where it rested. I repeated the stroke with my tongue, slowly and gently, again and again, the rhythm working her higher but not too fast, despite the low moans and groans I could hear.

I was feeling a little smug, I was pushing her higher, I was going to get her to come gently, have it wash over her and leave her happy and drained and warm, I didn't care if I didn't come, besides, it would just make her twice as determined next time to be sure it was me first.

That was, until her first finger gently slid inside, while she mimicked my own slow strokes. The double sensation drags a shuddering moan from me as she slides the finger in and out, the combination of stimulation and penetration driving me wild.

I couldn't hold back, I reached up and slid a single finger inside, hearing her gasp as I mirrored her own movements, pumping in and out gently as our tongues gently stroked over our clits.

How long we were like that I have no idea, lost in an increasing haze of lust and need, I lost all track of time, all that mattered was feeling the shakes and shudders and trembles rumbling though the body lying on mine, hearing gasps and moans and groans and pants as Nat began to lose control.

I was feeling my own control start to loosen under her onslaught, as a second finger joined the first, sawing and twisting gently inside me, her tongue working over my clit and lips gently, dragging moans and curses from me, as I begged, I pleaded for her to not stop, to never stop, to keep going forever.

I was close, very close when I felt a delicate fingernail tease the skin between my pussy and ass, gently teasing the sensitive skin, before it started teasing in and around the edge of the tight anal ring. The nerves there were on fire from the teasing, scratching tip of her nail, as my mind reeled from the sensory overload.

Realising I was getting close I latched onto her clit, sucking gently, them more and more insistently, as I slid the index fingers of each hand into her, twisting them separately and together, opening her, pulling gently one way then the other, stretching her gently, trying to overwhelm her with sensations.

Nat redoubled her efforts, as I felt my control let go the last thing I remembered was hearing a shuddering scream rip from me as I came, my body shaking and shuddering as I blacked out for a moment, overwhelmed by the rush and left trembling and weak.

When I came back I realised that she was still close, still panting, so marshalling my strength I slid my fingers back inside her gently, using both hands, the index fingers sliding and twisting in and out, the thumbs brushing and teasing her clit, rubbing harder as she stiffened, as I heard her panting speed up, faster and faster, moans and cries, calling my name over and over.

"Come for me love, come for me, I want you to come" I begged her to let go and come, as I caught her clit between my thumbs, before attacking the very tip with my tongue, then sucking it all the way into my mouth, fingers sawing in and out faster and faster as she moaned, before she stiffened, her voice wild and strained as she gave a loud groan, before collapsing on me, a dead weight as she twitched and spasmed and trembled.

I felt her weight on me and loved it, as she slowly recovered, too wrecked to move.

Finally Nat rolled off me, before she crawled around and snuggled up close.

"God that was a good one" I smiled.

"Yes it was" I leant in and kissed her, tasting myself on her lips, plus the taste of her, as the juices we'd been greedily licking and sucking mingled in a kiss.

I don't know how long we lay there, slowly drifting off, when Natalie slowly yawned.

"That must have been good, I'm exhausted" I gave a gentle laugh, seeing the clock behind her.

"It might have something to do with the fact that it's almost midnight" She just smiled softly.

"Can you turn the light off?" I laughed softly as I disentangled myself from her embrace.

"Why am I getting up anyway? If you wanted it off you could have done it yourself" I could see her smile as I plunged the room into darkness, setting the alarm before rolling back into bed.

"Because I'm doing something important"

"Oh, and what might that be?"

"Loving you, now come here and give me a cuddle" I scooted over and snuggled up against her back, spooning happily.

"I'd be an idiot to knock that back, if I do say so myself"

"Stop saying anything and let me get to sleep"

"Good night Blondie, I love you" I placed a kiss against her neck, getting a gentle, happy hum in reply.

"I love you too Tsarina" She pulled my hand up from her stomach to her lips and kissed it gently. "I love you lots"

Pulling her in closer, I smiled.

No, I didn't, I couldn't want anyone else, I had perfect right here in my arms and she made me complete.


	40. Chapter 40

**A/N **The wonderful characters of 'The Closer' and 'Rizzoli and Isles' belong to their respective rights holders, no infringement is intended, but as always, thanks for letting us have our way with them, if only for a moment.

A quick thanks to Kyra Sedgwick, Mary McDonnell, Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander for the warmth and depth you bring to the portrayals of our favourite detectives.

**The pool party Part 1**

Sharon's viewpoint

Maura and Jane's house was a beautiful architect-designed place that exuded style, class and money. I knew it was rented not owned, but it would still cost a significant part of my monthly salary in rent.

I was ringing their door bell for the second time in a week, this time for a pool party. Maura had dropped by to casually note that they were having a small gathering of friends at their place on Sunday and they would be honoured if I could join them.

I'd been of a mind to go even before she had mentioned that Brenda was coming, so I'd smiled and told her I wouldn't miss it for the world. I'd expected a nice time, enjoying a hot and sunny LA day with friends, lounging around their pool, but I wasn't prepared for the number of surprises the day would hold.

The first surprise met me at the front door, when Anastasia opened it in response to my ring. She was wearing a red one piece that was doing a very poor job of covering what I immediately realised was a quite spectacular body.

I knew you could hide a lot under slacks and jackets, hell, I'd been doing it for years, but she had somehow managed to hide a body that wouldn't have shamed a lingerie model, but which was emphasised by the swimsuit, especially at it was still damp from the pool, as was her hair.

"Sharon, lovely to see you; please come on in"

She leaned into give me a quick peck on the cheek before stepping back.

"Jane's out by the pool with Nat and Maura's in the wine cellar" I walked in and followed her through the house, I'd been here before, but that had been in the evening, in the light of day I couldn't help but admire the spacious house with its wooden floors, cathedral ceilings, skylights and airy design, the house felt even bigger than it was.

Following her out through the living area and out onto the patio, I could see a large swimming pool surrounded by decking, screened from the neighbours by artfully placed trees and shrubs, ensuring complete privacy.

I was also trying desperately to not stare at Anastasia as she walked in front of me, she was beautiful, with a body to die for and I could feel my mouth go slightly dry as I ran my eyes over her. I reminded myself that she was taken, but it didn't stop me from looking.

I was already feeling self-conscious after seeing Anastasia, a feeling which wasn't helped by what was waiting for me on the patio.

Jane and Natalie were laid out side by side on deck chairs by the pool. I'd always known that Natalie was impressive, but the skimpy white bikini she was wearing hid nothing, if anything it emphasised the lush curves that her work suits did an inadequate job of covering and which had half of the LAPDs senior officers bewitched.

An even bigger surprise though was Jane, who was reclining back in the sun next to Natalie. It wasn't the dark blue one piece she was wearing, although it did a nice job of emphasising her slender fashion model's figure, it was her legs. My god, that woman's legs should have been striding down catwalks; they could stop traffic. They seemed to go on forever, long and strong and powerful, a wonderful combination of genes and hard work in the gym.

I stood for a moment in the doorway, letting my eyes wander over them both. I don't normally stare, but those two…

Regaining my composure, I stepped out as Anastasia announced my arrival, which drew both of them to their feet to welcome me, giving me an even better view of their figures.

I'm normally not body conscious, I'm quietly proud of the body I've worked hard through countless morning runs and gym sessions to maintain, but surrounded by three beautiful women, I felt every one of my 55 years. Natalie enfolded me in a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek while Jane called back to the house that I had arrived.

A few seconds later I inwardly groaned as Maura walked out with a tray holding two bottles of wine and half a dozen glasses. For a moment I wondered if I had fallen into an alternate dimension, the world of stunning women. I knew Maura was beautiful, something her wardrobe simply emphasised, but in a green bikini that was only modest by comparison with Natalie's, she was a sight to behold, even if, shorn of her usual three or four inch heels, she was shorter than I expected.

Giving me a kiss on the cheek, Maura smiled happily at me.

"It's lovely to see you Sharon, I'm so glad you could come. I've just opened some fresh wine; we had just finished the last bottle so your timing is excellent"

"Thank you for inviting me Maura, seeing it in the daylight, you really have a lovely home" She grinned happily.

"It was available at just the right time, so I feel we were lucky to get it, it's got a lovely and light feel which makes the most of the sunshine. Ah thank you Jane" Jane was handling the drinks and handed me a glass of white, which turned out to be a very rich and smoky Australian Chardonnay.

I heard a set of high pitched barks and looked down to find their dog, Jo welcoming me with a wagging tail. I bent down to give her a pat, as she popped up on her back legs, resting her front paws on my leg and leaned into the pats I was giving her. Looking at her Jane laughed.

"She's supposed to be my dog, but she's got no loyalty at all. Show her some attention and she's yours" Maura smiled.

"I think she remembers you from last weekend" Looking up she explained to Natalie and Anastasia. "Sharon was our guest for dinner last weekend and charmed Jo; she ended up falling asleep in Sharon's lap" I just kept rubbing her under the chin, as her tailed vibrated back and forward happily.

Jane just shook her head.

"Traitor"

We sat and chatted for a few minutes, before Natalie stated that she was heading into the pool to cool down, which encouraged the others in as well.

I had felt the perspiration start in the hot sun under the polo shirt and jeans I was wearing, so I reluctantly stood up to take them off. Stripping off I stood there in the conservative black two piece I had on underneath, feeling very conscious of my no longer youthful body, but none of them gave me a second glance as I stepped down into the pool, which was invitingly cool.

For the next few minutes I bobbed around chatting to the others before I dived under, swimming the length of the pool and surfacing at the far end.

Standing there I momentarily felt a little naked with my hair wet and what little makeup I had on probably washed off, but I realised in a moment of insight that they didn't care and neither did I, they were behaving like friends, as Jane and Anastasia splashed water at each other while Maura and Natalie laughed.

I was here to have a fun afternoon with some people who had extended the hand of friendship to me; it beat an afternoon at home reading a book and I was honest enough to admit that I had been looking forward to it since being asked.

Resolutely pushing any remaining modesty and feelings of inadequacy away, I dived back under and swam back to the far end, surfacing between Natalie and Maura who were apparently talking shopping and designer labels

I happily fell into the discussion, easy enough given I have a liking for Armani suits which Brenda teases me about constantly, plus a small collection of Jimmy Choo's that were my secret fashion indulgence. Well not so secret now.

I heard the doorbell ring which drew Natalie out of the pool, quickly drying off before wrapping a towel around her waist and walking into the house. A minute or two later, she returned, leading Brenda out onto the patio.

I had been intrigued as to what she would wear, her wardrobe had changed a lot over the years, partly under my recent prodding, but I'd never actually seen her dressed really casually.

She had obviously decided to get into the casual feel, wearing a loose wrap skirt, a T shirt and sandals, with her hair up in a high ponytail, which made her look a lot younger.

We waved from the pool and I saw her eyes fall on where I was leaning up against the pool wall, a wide smile breaking out.

After exchanging greetings with everyone, she paused for a moment, before pulling off her clothes, revealing a green and gold one piece that did nice things to her slim figure. I'd never seen her like this, so I took a moment to admire her. She had a slim figure, but it was still delightfully curved. I was surprised by her breasts, they were a little larger than I expected, not too large, but generous for her body.

I'd already seen enough of her legs to know they were nice, but with them all on show I just had to take a moment to admire them, they were long, slim and lovely, much like the rest of her.

With a start I pulled my admiration into line, Brenda was resolutely straight and as such impossibly out of reach. Nothing good would come of mooning over her, so I pushed my honest appreciation of her as a sexy woman firmly to one side.

Casually walking over to the pool steps she stepped down into the water, giving a little shiver as the water moved up her body, before she resolutely dived in and swam over to where I was.

Surfacing near me she gave a cute grin as she trod water.

"Sharon Raydor, why fancy meeting you here" I couldn't help but smile back, she looked much younger without makeup and with that normal mass of blonde curls now plastered back against her head, contributing to the youthful look.

"Brenda Leigh Johnson, all wet and out of uniform too" She grinned happily at the teasing.

"So are you. I don't think I've ever seen you out of stilettoes, ever!" I laughed,

"They don't quite work as swimwear, unfortunately" She nodded, mock seriously.

"True, a shame though, I hardly know you out of your suits and heels. Are you sure you're Sharon Raydor, you look like you're having too much fun to be her" Not dignifying her comment with a reply, I just splashed her with water, causing her to give a startled cry before starting to laugh.

"Definitely not Sharon Raydor" she muttered, before splashing water back at me. Suddenly Anastasia loomed over us standing on the edge of the pool.

"Ladies please; a little decorum here. We expect you'll behave like the responsible senior officers of the LAPD you ahhhhh!" Her teasing speech went completely out the window as Natalie snuck up behind her and pushed her in, laughing hysterically as Anastasia flopped in.

Brenda and I both laughed as Anastasia came up spluttering, spinning around to stare daggers at her partner.

"Oh laugh it up Blondie, you'll pay for that. Sooner than you think" What Ana had seen but Natalie hadn't was Jane sneaking up behind her. Before she could speak she was suddenly flying headfirst into the pool, courtesy of a quick push.

I wasn't too busy laughing to not notice that our ever so prim and proper Medical Examiner had decided to get in the action, sneaking up behind Jane intent on pushing her in as well. Jane however had spotted her out of the corner of her eye and had quickly stepped to one side, pushing Maura in instead. With a shriek Maura splashed into the pool, joining the rest of us.

Laughing Jane struck a mock Charles Atlas pose as we looked up at her.

"Looks like I win" She grinned a little too smugly.

Maura just glared at her for a second, pushing her hair away from her face, before looking around at us as she headed for the edge of the pool.

"Girls, a little help here please" The next couple of minutes were a laughing blur as we chased Jane around the pool and garden, Jo barking excitedly, before we cornered her and with someone on each arm and leg, carried her to the pool edge as she struggled, although not too hard, before we unceremoniously threw her in. Maura looked immensely pleased, smiling proudly at the rest of us.

"I think that calls for a drink"

A drink or two later we had mostly ended up back in the pool to escape the heat. I was leaning up against the pool edge, chatting idly to Brenda, who was standing nearby, when she didn't answer a question.

Turning, I saw Brenda had paused in the act of wringing water out of her hair, watching Jane and Maura kiss at the other end of the pool. It wasn't a quick peck, more a drawn out promise of things to come.

To be honest, I wasn't bothered, they were obviously deeply in love and not shy about it, and no reason to be here in their own home, so their open affection was hardly surprising, what was a surprise was Brenda's reaction.

There was something in her eyes, a longing, almost a hunger, that shocked me to the core, before she whirled away, turning and diving deep underwater for the far side of the pool.

To buy myself time I ducked back under the surface and swam across to the pool steps. When I surfaced again and casually looked around, Jane was splashing water at Maura, who was shrieking with laughter while Brenda had turned and was snagging the air cushion before flipping herself into it and laying back.

I knew Brenda had been separated for the better part of a year and the estrangement from Fritz had started months before that, so it was a safe bet that Brenda was lonely and missing the comfort of another's touch, but the flash of longing I saw there was a little unnerving in its intensity.

It hadn't really occurred to me that Brenda, who was so passionate and emotional about her work, would be at least as much so in her relationships, what I also hadn't completely understood was exactly how lonely and wanting she was.

The other revelation was that she had watched as two women openly made out in front of her and had been obviously affected by it. I had thought Brenda was dead straight, although it may just have been the open display of easy intimacy that stoked the longing for human touch in her.

I completely understood how she felt, it had been a while for me as well, but my marriage had ended years ago, she was still officially married, even if in reality it was as dead as Julius Caesar.

I frowned for a moment, a little saddened at what I had seen, she was a beautiful woman, I couldn't help but notice all afternoon that she had a lovely figure, although how she kept it given her massive addiction to chocolate I had no idea.

She should be easily able to attract someone, if only she would let them in. However since her separation she had pretty much buried herself in her work, the only people she really socialised with were her squad and I.

I was glad she had come today and I was certain she was enjoying it, I hadn't missed the shrieks of laughter as we had dragged Jane to the pool, plus she was more relaxed than I had seen her in months. Still, I resolved to try and keep a close eye on her, to try and be a better friend to her in the future.

We messed around for another 20 minutes or so before Maura and Jane headed inside to prepare lunch, Brenda drifting around the pool on the inflatable while Natalie and Ana sat on the pool steps together. I was sitting on the pool edge, letting the sun and breeze dry me off and luxuriating in the warmth on my back when I saw Anastasia lean in to kiss Natalie, a long, slow sensuous kiss that left me feeling butterflies in my stomach.

A thought occurred to me and I looked around to see Brenda watching them with rapt attention, her eyes wide, her mouth a little open. Not realising they were being examined, the girls kissed for about 20 seconds before breaking it off, but in that time I watched Brenda's mouth snap shut, before her tongue slowly peeked out, moistening her obviously dry lips.

Her eyes had narrowed, which at first made me think she disapproved, before I realised that she was aroused, her nipples becoming hard under the wet fabric.

I found my own mouth had gone dry, Brenda was watching them and it was turning her on. Oh my god.

I was still processing that fact when Natalie and Ana broke off their kiss and Brenda abruptly rolled off the inflatable and disappeared under the surface.

Brenda was being turned on by two women kissing, not only that but she had been physically aroused, her body unable to hide the physical reaction to what she had been watching and thinking.

Eventually Brenda broke the surface on the other side of the pool, as she stood there, facing away from us. I guessed she was trying to get herself back under control before having to face us.

I was still processing what had happened when I saw Jane and Maura walk out to the large outside table, carrying bowls of salads. Obviously lunch was imminent.

It occurred to me that Brenda had let herself relax and her normal guard was down. I was seeing the hurt, lonely woman beneath the Southern charm she used to deflect everyone around her from looking underneath. Today however she was relaxed and unguarded.

I felt both intrigued and saddened by what I had seen today. Brenda was so alone and hurting and yearning for affection, it must be a form of torture for her, even though I was certain that neither of the couples realised the effect they were having on Brenda.

However something had changed, something new had happened today.

The easy air of openness, love and sensuality between both couples had opened Brenda's eyes to something she had no previous experience of, one that had been quite unexpected, but not unwelcome, to judge by her bodies reaction.

The thought ran around and around in circles inside my head; Brenda had been turned on watching them, not once, but twice. Maybe she was nowhere near as straight as I had thought, or perhaps she was straight but only now realising that women could be as arousing as men and a whole lot more sensual.

I smirked softly to myself, I could have told her that, or better yet, shown her.

Whoops. Where had that come from?

Well, if I was truthful it had come straight from my own libido. I was honest enough to admit I had come to desire Brenda. Over the last few months I'd discovered I had more than a few passing fantasies where Brenda had played a starring role.

I'd always rationalised them as simply an overactive mind fixating on a pretty woman who was familiar to me, as far I knew Brenda was as straight as they came, with no interest in women. Now I wasn't so sure.

If I was being really honest, the idea of seducing Brenda was about the hottest thing I could imagine, I could feel my body reacting of its own accord to the thought, as I desperately stamped down on my arousal.

It occurred to me that there might be an opportunity for me here. Brenda was alone, lonely, needy and as had been so convincingly proven, she seemed to have found the sight of two women making out to be…interesting.

Could we have something more than just friendship?

I chastised myself for thinking about my friend like this; I would be taking advantage of her loneliness and vulnerability if I was to push the boundaries. I might also lose her as a friend if she didn't reciprocate.

Could I really take advantage of her loneliness, her need, to try and make a move on Brenda? This was one of my few close friends; I could lose her forever if I messed this up.

I didn't really have all that many people I could be so close to, Brenda was perhaps my closest friend, well, there really wasn't a perhaps about it. Dare I risk that, for something that may be unwelcome and unwanted?

Another voice deep inside however had a different argument, one I would normally push away but which today could not be ignored.

That voice stated that we were both lonely, that we were friends who already got along well together and who might want to take it to a new level, that Brenda was at least interested enough in same-sex relationships to find them arousing and that it wouldn't hurt to push a little, just to explore the options.

If nothing else, this was the right place to test some boundaries, while we were in an environment where we wouldn't be judged by our hosts.

Besides, that maddeningly teasing little voice whispered, it'd be fun.

I smiled slyly to myself. It would be that.


	41. Chapter 41

**The pool party Part 2**

Sharon's viewpoint

I made sure to sit next to Brenda at lunch out on the patio. The setting was perfect for what I wanted; we were sitting on cushioned wooden benches around a patio table, with Anastasia and Natalie on one side, then Jane and Maura together, then us. I made sure I was sitting outside Brenda, so I had to reach past her for everything.

I started by sitting down a little close, so our bare legs were almost but not quite touching, close enough for Brenda to be aware I was there but not actually meet. It also meant I was sitting close enough for our shoulders to occasionally bump together.

Brenda flashed me a wonderfully happy smile as I sat down, glad to have me there and for a moment I faltered; did I really want to do this, to push my friend this way? Could I really go ahead with this, do this to my best friend; maybe destroy a friendship that was so important to me?

Then I looked around at Anastasia and Natalie; Jane and Maura, both couples happily wrapped up with each other and I realised I'd already made my decision before I'd sat down.

I wanted what they had, happiness, comfort, a confidante who I could be totally at ease with and a chance to be loved and to love in turn. I looked at Brenda out of the corner of my eye, watching her laugh happily as Maura recommended the salad and decided yes, I did want this. I wanted to try for the life they had and I wanted to try with Brenda.

I'd always found her attractive, even when we first met; under those hideous floral dresses and sweaters I'd realised there was a beautiful woman lurking. Since then, I'd got to see more of her and liked what I saw. It helped that she had made one or two comments where she'ad observed that I looked good, so she wasn't completely oblivious to me.

The thought of turning her from my friend to something more intimate was an attractive one, I wanted her, not for a night, or a week, but for a lot longer than that, I wanted a partner to love, not someone for a fling.

But I had to go slow, take my time, so that she wasn't spooked. If I realised it was never going to happen, I wanted to be able to pull back carefully enough and keep our friendship intact. If she seemed open to my ever so careful advances, well… we would have to see.

I felt a calmness settle over me as I came to my decision. No second guesses, no doubts, I'd never had as good an opportunity and I might not again, so if I was going to do it, well _Carpe Diem_.

I started gently; leaning in and placing my hand on her arm as I asked her to pass a plate. As she passed it across I leaned in gently to thank her, which allowed my shoulder to touch hers. Reaching for a glass of wine Jane was passing, I let my thigh brush up against hers, catching her slightly start as I did.

I felt an old tingle in my belly start, I hadn't gently flirted and teased like this for years; I'd forgotten how much fun it could be, especially on an unsuspecting target.

For the rest of the lunch, I oh so innocently inhabited Brenda's personal space, letting our skin touch at shoulder and thigh, gentle touches on her arm as I leaned in to ask for a napkin or for a plate to be passed, bumping up against her as we laughed, generally being a close presence as we enjoyed a wonderful meal.

Honestly, I loved it, the excitement of the chase, to feel her so close and to luxuriate in the contact, the naughty thrill of touching her skin, to feel the warmth of her under my touch, enjoying it as Brenda soon got used to my presence, she reacted less as we touched, as she became accustomed to our contacts and the brushes and the soft bumps and the heat of skin on skin, it all felt good, very good.

One thing I hadn't really thought through though was exactly how obvious I'd be to everyone else. I should have realised that being surrounded by four professionally observant women there was every chance they might notice, but I hadn't realised how quickly they picked up on what I was doing.

Natalie and Maura were sitting close to each other when I saw Maura lean in to whisper something to Natalie. Natalie looked across at me for a second and then turned to whisper something back in reply. Together they then looked at me, with Natalie raising an eyebrow at me, before nodding gently. Fortunately Brenda was chatting to Jane and missed the exchange, while I turned my attention to the food on my plate. When next I looked up, I noticed Maura was wearing a small, sly smile. I carefully smiled back before turning my attention back on Brenda.

Not long afterwards I looked over at Ana who threw a quick glance at Brenda to be sure she was looking elsewhere, before flashing me a quick smile and wink. As we continued eating I could see Jane had also worked out what I was doing, as she was sitting closest to Brenda and her eyes could pick up almost everything I was doing. At one stage, as Brenda chatted with Ana across the table, Jane looked past Brenda to me and flashed me the tiniest of nods and a small smile.

I had to look down to cover my smile. Not only had everyone else noticed, but it seemed they were at least supportive of what I was attempting. I looked up and smiled as I looked at each of them in turn, catching their eyes, before giving them the gentlest of nods.

As we chatted, my eyes caught a slow movement from the back of the yard. Intrigued, I watched as a slowly moving shape emerged from the shadows, revealing it to be a tortoise.

"That's an unusual pet Jane, not too many people keep a large tortoise as a pet" Maura flashed me a lovely smile as everyone else turned to watch it make slow, stately progress across the lawn. Jane smiled.

"He's not my pet, well he wasn't originally" Maura filled me in.

"That's Bass; he's named after William M Bass…" Brenda laughed.

"The man who set up the first body farm, Maura that's so appropriate" Natalie looked perplexed.

"Body farm?" Maura explained.

"A place where bodies are exposed to different environments to examine the speed and natures of how they decompose, to assist in further refining the study of forensic anthropology" Natalie looked down at her plate.

"Thank you Maura, I was enjoying my lunch…" Maura smiled and looked over at me.

"I'm impressed Sharon, most people who see him think Bass is a turtle"

"Well, he seems better adapted for land dwelling than for living in the water, which makes him a tortoise"

As we watched Bass made his almost painfully slow way towards a clump of bushes closer to the house, although his movement wasn't enough to convince Jo to move from where she sat under the table, her eyes alert for any dropped morsel of food.

As I leaned back to look at her, I saw a tiny piece of meat passed from a set of fingers to where she eagerly rose on her hind legs, neatly taking the snack from the hand across the table.

My eyes flicked up to see Anastasia's eyes on mine; she smiled slightly as her hand reappeared above the table, before she looked away. I smiled to myself, '_spoiled little dog_'. I smiled even wider as I surreptitiously snagged a piece of meat and moved it under the table for her.

Once dinner was over, we retired to the living area and took up residence on the lounges, with each couple sharing a lounge and Brenda and I sitting together on the third. We chatted about various subjects for a while, including a couple of hilarious anecdotes about going undercover. Jane was recalling one where to catch a murderer; they had to infiltrate a sex party to get DNA.

"Maura here was all hot to trot, she couldn't wait. Of course, being Maura the first question she had wasn't would it be dangerous or what would we be doing. The most important thing was what she was going to wear" Maura blushed.

"Well, as I said, I had no idea what would be appropriate for the role" She looked around at us and gave a small shrug. "I'd never been a high class hooker before" Jane snorted.

"And she still hasn't. We went as waiting staff, which disappointed Maura no end, as she thought the hooker's costumes were 'cute', gah!" She put air quotes around cute. "That is until I reminded her that the hookers had to take them off"

I smiled at the gorgeous pout on Maura's face as she lightly punched Janes arm, I'm sure she got away with no end of trouble using it. With that look in her arsenal, Jane didn't stand a chance.

Anastasia and Natalie were laughing at the image, before Natalie calmed enough to look up at Ana and smile.

"Tell them about your little stint as a potential porn star" Rolling her eyes Ana demurred but at calls from us she smiled and held up her hand in a surrender gesture.

"We were investigating a possible interstate money trafficking ring, but couldn't get anything on the main guy. He seemed to be working out of a building in Seattle, lots of people coming and going. Including a lot of single women" She shrugged. "We couldn't get a search warrant on what were pretty flimsy grounds, so the brass decided to set me up with a wire and send me in, dressed like the rest of the girls, to see what I could find" Natalie smiled.

"She looked hot too!"

"Shush you. Anyway, I got in easily enough; although the guys on the door were a bit surprised my name wasn't on the list. In the end they were too busy staring down my cleavage to care very much, so I got in. Turns out what we thought was a money laundering joint was actually being used to film amateur porn, getting girls in to perform for the camera with a couple of guys" Jane whooped as we laughed.

"But did you look good on camera?" Staring at Jane, Ana refused to dignify the question with an answer, shooting Jane the bird before continuing, as Jane smirked at her.

"Once I worked out what was happening, at the earliest chance I snuck out the back while most of the crew were busy filming with an orgy scene; I had to tell the tactical team to stand down before they came in to bust the place up. Mind you, the worst part was listening to the audio tape later" Maura frowned.

"Oh, why?"

"The bit where I had to answer yes or no to a long list of exactly what I would and wouldn't do on camera was a little confronting. I was the butt of a few comments afterwards" Nat smiled.

"I've heard it and the noises in the background on it are pretty…suggestive"

We happily had a laugh at her enthusiastic tone, before we settled back down, relaxing in the companionable silence.

Thinking the opportunity was there to steer the conversation in a direction that might be to my advantage, I turned to address Anastasia and Natalie.

"How did you two meet?" They shared a look and Ana nodded and spoke.

"Well, we were both living in Seattle, I was with the local bureau office and Nat was with a local television station" Natalie grinned.

"I was looking for a break from chasing ambulances to a more senior role"

"Shush, anyway, we met over a case and started hanging out together and now we're been together for almost four years"

"That simple?" Jane asked; obviously sure there was more to it than that.

"Well no, not really, that's the reader's digest condensed version, if you want the long version you should ask Natalie, she's the story teller"

"I'm sure there's a story worth telling there" Brenda grinned and I smiled, as her asking saved me from having to. Natalia smiled happily.

"Well, OK. This might take a little while so can you get everyone another drink please Ana?"

"OK" Anastasia got up and gave her a quick kiss before heading over to the kitchen.

"Anyway, Ana and I had met a couple of times on the scenes of cases, but I hadn't really done much more than the usual, '_hi, how you doing_', that sort of thing. We once bumped in to each other in a nightclub but we were with different groups, so we just nodded and moved on" Ana interrupted from the fridge.

"Tell me about it, you were with that jerk from the Seahawks, the one who kept trying to slide his hands up your dress" Natalie smiled at the interruption.

"Hush you, whose telling this story? Anyway, we met again on a case involving the kidnapping of a 12 year old girl. Turned out that the perp was a pedophile who had been released a couple of weeks before. Apparently the shrink assessed him as unlikely to reoffend" Natalie shook her head; obviously the memories still got to her.

"I swear the prison shrinks don't have a goddamned clue, when they interviewed the perp's cellmate afterwards he told them that he was already planning what he was going to do when he got out. Idiots, I swear, all of them!" Jane looked at us, then back at Natalie.

"She sounds just like a cop. You sure you're a journalist?"

"I was, then. Now I'm not so sure the journalist's association would agree with me. My attitudes might be seen to lack objectivity, just because I think most criminals are dirtbags" Jane nodded again, with a satisfied expression on her face.

"Definitely sounds like a cop" Maura placed her hand on Jane's to quiet her and looked over to Natalie.

"So what happened?" Anastasia returned and topped up our glasses, with beers for Jane and herself. I took the opportunity to move over closer to Brenda to hold my wine glass out for refilling. When Ana handed it back I curled my legs under me, which also meant that I got to stay sitting much closer to Brenda.

"Thanks Ana. Well by the time everyone had connected the dots he had grabbed another girl, aged 10. He was eventually tracked to a derelict apartment complex. As the local police entered, they found he'd booby trapped the place, as they discovered the hard way. The FBI and local SWAT teams surrounded the place and it turned into a siege which lasted for almost 24 hours" I vaguely remembered the incident, obviously Brenda did as well.

"I remember seeing that, it was going out live"

"Oh yeah, a real media circus; anyway Ana and I ended up standing around a lot waiting for stuff to happen, mostly just talking to fill in time. We kinda learned a lot about each other over takeaway coffee at three in the morning" Anastasia snorted.

"There wasn't a whole hell of a lot else to do, we could at least share your umbrella, it beat standing out in the rain"

"Yep, anyway, the negotiator wasn't getting anywhere and the profiler was telling everyone who would listen that the perp was going to go off the rails. Eventually, the brass agreed that the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team would go in at dawn. There were a couple of shots fired, turned out the perp had tried to kill both girls before the HRT guys could get in" A sad look crossed her face and Anastasia leaned in to kiss her on the forehead, making her smile. I cast a quick eye at Brenda, but she seemed unfazed, too engrossed in the story.

"Thank you Tsarina. Anyway, he shot one girl before they got him. I was broadcasting live from the scene when the team leader walked out carrying the 12 year old. I started tearing up and I wasn't the only one, but when I saw another team member carry out the body of the 10 year old, well I lost it completely, bawled my eyes out, live on air"

"Most of the guys in the HRT were crying, the FBI and Seattle PD were crying, I was crying, hell, my camera guy was crying and he'd worked half a dozen war zones in his time. I turned round to see Ana here standing next to me, bawling like a baby. I just reached over, grabbed her and we just held each onto other tight until we finally stopped" Anastasia reached out and pulled her into a hug and I could easily see them standing there, just holding each other and crying in the rain. Natalie swallowed and smiled, before looking over at us.

"Sorry, that still gets to me. Anyway, we eventually wrapped up and went back to the studio, where the news boss tore strips off me for my lack of 'objectivity and professionalism' as he put it. They sent me home for a few days to get my head straight, which just left me time to think" She shrugged.

"I kept thinking that I had cried on Ana's shoulder and I needed that right then and wondering how she was coping, so I pulled out her card and rang her. We agreed to meet up and talk about what had happened. It was funny; we sat down in a coffee shop and looked at each other. She asked me how I was and I said fine, I asked her and she said fine, then we looked at each other and you could tell, each of us wondering what to say next" She smiled quietly at Ana as they linked their fingers.

"Finally she looked up and said that she really wasn't fine, which made me admit I wasn't fine either and we started talking. We were in there for hours, really talking about what we were, who we wanted to be and why"

"After that, well a day didn't go by where we wouldn't talk in person or on the phone. Over the next few months we found ourselves spending more and more time together, and it sort of moved from friendship to a relationship" Anastasia laughed loudly at that.

"Now who's leaving things out?"

"Well, it's true; that's what happened" Ana laughed even harder before quieting enough to turn to us.

"What Blondie here isn't telling you is how we went from friends to something more serious. We were out at a nightclub with a group of her girlfriends and I was tagging along, when a bunch of footballers, including her by now ex-boyfriend, decided to move in. I saw him back her into a corner and his hands start to wander. It was obvious Nat wasn't interested but he'd had too much to drink and wasn't taking no for an answer. So I persuaded him to leave her alone"

"What Ana isn't telling you is that she told him if he didn't get his hands off me she would kick his balls up past his teeth. He didn't believe her and he had partly ripped my dress, so she did" Jane whooped with laughter.

"Way to go Ana!" Amused by Jane's reaction, I smiled, easily imagining Jane doing something similar to protect Maura. Anastasia smiled and shrugged.

"I didn't like the fact that my friend was being pawed by a drunk pig twice her size. So I stopped it. Fortunately for me, he decided to stay on the ground as I escorted Natalie out of there" Natalie smiled at Ana before snuggling into her.

Once again I cast a quick glance at Brenda, but she was clearly unfazed by their easy intimacy

"I was very grateful that Nat stepped in as I was actually quite scared. He was drunk and angry at me dumping him, for what he called a 'dyke slut'. I didn't realise at the time that he meant Anastasia, but he apparently thought I'd dumped him for her. In fact I'd woken up to the fact that he was a pig and told him to get out of my life"

"It wasn't till after we left that I realised two things. The first was that Anastasia had taken down a guy twice her size to protect me, which amazed me; I thought she'd been very brave. The second was that he thought I was in a relationship with her" She shrugged.

"It got me thinking. I thought back to all the times I'd passed on doing things with other people to do something else with Ana, how many times we'd dragged each other along to events that we had to go to just to make it bearable. How often we had gone to something that wasn't our thing, just because the other had asked and how often we had just hung around together, not doing much"

Natalie lifted Ana's hand up to her lips and kissed each her fingers, which I thought was a remarkably intimate thing to do in front of others. I noticed the tiniest of shivers run through Brenda, and smiled inwardly; Brenda wasn't as immune to the situation as I'd first thought.

"It was at that point that I realised I'd rather be in a relationship with Ana than anyone else, we just meshed so much and she really is my other half. I didn't want anyone else, I wanted to be hers and for her to be mine"

She stretched up and kissed Anastasia long and deeply on the lips, to the point that I started to squirm slightly, as did Brenda. Finally coming up for air, she smiled a warm happy smile at us all, completely unfazed.

"Anyway, by the time the cab dropped us at my place, I'd worked out what I wanted, but wasn't sure about whether Ana was interested in the same thing or if she was just sticking up for a friend" I nodded slowly as I thought it over, noticing that Jane was sharing a look with Maura, before she turned back to Natalie.

"This sounds awfully familiar actually. So what happened?"

"Well, I decided that I was going to try and seduce Ana, to see if I got a positive response"

"I take it your overtures were well received?" I said. At that point Anastasia snickered as Natalie rolled her eyes.

"Actually no, Ana was more amused than anything. I recall her standing there with her hands on her hips asking me if I was drunk. When I denied it she accused me of being drunk as I was trying to seduce her" Natalie spread her hands in a helpless gesture.

"It ended up in a flaming row, as I didn't dare tell her that I was interested, I was afraid I would really damage our friendship" I felt my mouth snap shut as her words hit a little too close to home, given what I was doing. Fortunately no one noticed as Anastasia took up the story.

"I was pissed with Natalie, because I thought she was just playing with me, when I had been interested in her for months, but thought she was straight and therefore unattainable" Jane and Maura looked at each other, exchanging so many thoughts with just a look, before Maura spoke.

"Jane and I went through a similar situation; we each wanted the other but were afraid to say anything for fear or wrecking our friendship" I couldn't help the butterflies in my stomach at her words, although I consoled myself that they had moved past that to be together.

Natalie smiled sadly at us, while Anastasia nodded.

"We were at the screaming stage when I accused Nat of playing with my feelings for her, which was the moment when the light bulbs went on for both of us" Natalie reached up to caress the side of Anastasia's face, as Ana turned to kiss the palm of her hand. I smiled at the open affection they showed to each other. Natalie took up the story.

"We went from screaming at each other to basically bawling our eyes out clinging to each other as we realised that we both wanted the same thing. Well, that was almost four years ago and I haven't been this happy ever. Anastasia is the best thing to ever happen to me, and I want her to be there for the rest of my life"

"You're stuck with me Blondie; I'm not going anywhere, not without you"

I looked at the two of them, looking so at ease with one another, so happy and content.

Then I looked over at Jane and Maura, who were curled up close together, Jane's arm around Maura's shoulder as she leaned into Jane, equally at ease and comfortable with each other, they were happy too.

I turned carefully to look at Brenda, who was reclining next to me, giving me the chance to examine her out of the corner of my eye. She looked relaxed and happy, not at all fazed by the intimacy of our hosts and their friends, I took that as a good sign, backing up what I had seen before, she wasn't upset by it, more intrigued and a little aroused.

Looking at her I asked myself again, did I want this, to take the risk to pursue Brenda?

I looked across at her, as she looked back at me and a warm smile appeared and I realised, yes I did want this, with her.

As we shared a smile, I knew I was making the right decision.


	42. Chapter 42

**Disclaimer**. This story is rated M for a reason, this chapter being one of them.

This chapter contains depictions of consenting adults doing what consenting adults do when they feel like it, so if sexual content isn't your thing, please skip the chapter and move on.

I've tried to write this story so these chapters aren't completely integral to the storyline, however skipping them means that you won't get the full character development.

As always, the choice is yours.

**Sharon dreams of Brenda**

Sharon's viewpoint

The afternoon had finally come to an end, which left me a little blue, as I had been having a wonderful time. It'd been ages since I had been out to such a happy, casual party. Not to mention the delicious, oh so very naughty thrill of surreptitiously flirting with Brenda.

We had headed our separate ways and I made my way home, where I had a long soaking shower, scrubbing the pool water smell out of my hair and emerging feeling wonderfully relaxed.

I wandered around the house in a bath robe for a while but didn't feel all that hungry, that delicious lunch had filled me up and after all the wine I'd drunk, I didn't want any more, so I made a coffee and sat on my sofa, looking out into the back yard as the sun set.

I thought back over the day, which had not turned out anything like I had thought it might when I left this morning. It had been a day full of surprises with Brenda being the biggest of them.

I once again examined my decision about Brenda and wondered yet again if I was doing the right thing.

As the light outside dimmed, I reviewed everything that had happened, the lives that both couples had built, how happy they were and I realised I wanted the same thing.

I sat there thinking of what I wanted, the thought of Brenda, all mine.

I closed my eyes and the images of Brenda in that swimsuit played on the inside of my eyelids. Her figure, her smile, the honeyed Georgia accent, that shining hair, I wondered what it would be like to have her call out my name in the throes of passion. To see her hair splayed out across a pillow, to see her look at me in the post-orgasmic aftermath of sex.

I slowly nibbled at my lip as I realised that I was becoming turned on, the vivid images making me shiver a little, my body starting to respond to the images. Resolutely I banished the images to concentrate on the facts.

I had been alone for way too long, since my relationship with Brooke had ended. There had been a couple of one night stands with men and women, but that was just physical release, good as a pressure relief, but none of them were people that I wanted to be truly intimate with beyond a good quality fuck.

I wanted the same easy intimacy and open love that I had seen today, with someone who I could love. Could I love Brenda Leigh Johnson?

I thought about that very concept, deep and hard. If someone had asked me eighteen months ago I would probably have had them committed to an insane asylum, back then my more usual thoughts were that I just wanted to strangle her.

Truth be told though, I had come to appreciate our little sparring matches. Most of the senior officers I ran up against either backed down or weren't sure how to deal with a woman who stood her ground. Brenda and I seemed to just generate sparks off each other; it almost became a game for each of us to outwit the other.

Brenda trying her hardest to send me off to the wrong place to buy her time to investigate, me trying my damndest to be right where she didn't want me. The look on her face when I walked in where I wasn't expected had always had its own illicit thrill. I have no doubt that when she succeeded in sending me on a wild goose chase a similar thrill had hit her.

It got to the point where it had seemed that solving the crime had almost become secondary; beating each other had become the main game. I smiled, I'd actually got to the point where I'd look forward to cases where I could match wits with her, the challenge was real and the satisfaction was delicious.

It couldn't have lasted though, sooner or later one of us would have had to step back; Pope would have eventually forced a resolution, even though he seemed to take a perverse, illicit delight in watching us fight it out in his office. I blinked as a momentary image of the pair of us having a cat fight in a pile of jelly on the floor of his office flashed through my mind.

I laughed at the thought; Pope would pay real money to see that. Shit, he still carried a torch for Brenda and he'd made it obvious that he was interested in me, no doubt the son of a bitch had dreamed of the pair of us together, performing for him; he was a guy after all.

I smiled, imagining the look on his face if Brenda and I did become an item; he'd probably be torn between frustration and fantasy. I smirked, he'd be so pissed, pissed that he'd lost both of us, not that I cared, turning my thoughts back to Brenda.

Since those early days we'd become closer, that horrible Ally Moore case, the Goldman inquisition, trying to find out whoever Goldman's leak was, although pretty much everyone was certain it was Taylor; each of them had driven us closer together.

Now we were friends, pretty close friends. We caught up for coffee several times a week; we had been clothes shopping together, I liked spending time with her. Under that 'aw shucks' exterior was an incredibly smart woman, one who had managed to turn her squad from hostile subordinates into a group of friends devoted to her.

She was pretty and smart and fun. I remembered hearing her tinkling laugh this afternoon and realised I had never heard her laugh as often as I had today. She had let her barriers fall, comfortable that she was amongst friends and I realised that I really, truly liked the woman underneath the day to day armour.

A pang of regret hit me, Brenda had been open and unguarded and I had taken advantage of her openness to slither inside her defences and make the opening moves on seducing her.

I sat back and took a sip of coffee, enjoying the bitter taste as it slid over my tongue. I had, in a way, betrayed her trust. She believed me to be her supportive friend, the person she could trust, and I had used that trust to use the closeness we had to do something I wasn't even sure she would appreciate, let alone reciprocate.

I set the coffee down and stretched out, working a few slightly sore muscles. I hadn't done that much swimming in years and some of my muscles were grumbling a bit about the unaccustomed exercise. I made a note to skip a few morning runs and try and get into the gym a bit more; work on the other muscle groups for a change.

Enough wool-gathering; I needed to refocus. What do I do? Right now I could decide I should stop, accept that Brenda was a friend and she should stay one. Basically accept the status quo and try and move on, try and find someone else who intrigued me half as much as Brenda. I snorted at that.

Right…

On the other hand, I now had evidence that she at least was open to the attraction of a relationship with a woman. Her body had certainly demonstrated that clearly enough, watching the girls at the pool. I had to say though, watching Jane and Maura or Natalie and Anastasia lovingly kissing would probably get a rise out of anyone, man or woman, who wasn't either a raging homophobe or dead.

If I did want to seduce her and I had to admit that I desperately did, then I'd have to go about this so very carefully. Brenda might be at least somewhat interested but she was obviously completely inexperienced and I didn't want to have her run scared from the thought.

I had to get her gently used to me being in her personal space, being intimately close to her, while slowly moving her thoughts to the idea that a relationship with a woman would be a good thing. I wanted Brenda to think that the idea was hers, making her much less likely to withdraw at the potential reality.

After all, I wasn't looking for a one night stand with her. Honestly I still got enough appraising glances and appreciative comments, even at my age, that I could find someone to scratch that particular itch. What I wanted was something much longer term. Very long term if I was being honest, as in forever long.

Truthfully, I didn't know too many people of either sex who could have filled that requirement. Some of them had been at the party today, but they were taken. In fact looking at it objectively, Brenda was one of the few people I could see being with long term, plus she was available.

She was smart, pretty and understood the pressures of the job we worked in. To be honest, that had been what had ended the almost four-year relationship I had with Brooke. She had not been able to accept the realities of being involved with a police officer, the threats, the dangers, being injured and being shot at and sometimes having to take a life that were part and parcel of the career.

Brenda knew what that life was all about; to be honest that woman had pulled out her weapon more times in the last two years than I had in the last decade. She was always headstrong, leading her team from the front, unwilling to send them to do something she wouldn't, particularly when it came to dangerous situations.

I took another sip of coffee as I examined what I really wanted; from a relationship and from one with Brenda.

I wanted someone to share a life with, someone who accepted me as Sharon, not 'Commander Raydor' or 'that frigid FID bitch' which was a new term I'd overheard lately. I wanted someone to love and someone who would love me in return, someone who would share my bed, my life and my heart.

I was lonely; I was honest enough to admit that the thought of growing old alone scared me. I didn't think that I was too old to love again, to give everything of myself to someone who would love me back.

Would Brenda Leigh Johnson be the one?

I honestly didn't know but I hoped so, I hoped that we could be together, to be happy as a couple.

I certainly found her attractive, both physically and mentally. I had seen enough today to know that the prospect of exploring her body intimately was something that was a major turn on for me.

I closed my eyes and cast my mind back over today's activities. Even with her hair plastered to her head and any makeup washed away, Brenda had been lovely and that generous mouth was just made for kissing. I felt a smile twist my lips as a warm tingly flush passed through me at the thought of capturing that lush mouth.

It was obvious that whatever my rational mind was thinking, my body and emotions and libido had made their mind up.

Giving in for a moment, I imagined pinning her under me, running my hands through those luscious blonde locks while I plundered her mouth.

To feel her hands over my body as I stripped her of her clothes, to explore every nook and crevice of her body, every high point and warm wet place. I was the experienced one; I would have to lead her into the joys that two women could share.

To have her moan under me as I suckled from her nipples, those remarkably long ones I had witnessed this afternoon, tenting the wet Lycra so charmingly. Teasing them with my tongue and catching them between my teeth.

To hear her soft Georgia lilt as she moaned my name, her long, strong fingers entwined in my hair as I kissed and licked and sucked down her delicious body and those lovely long legs.

Wetness surged within me and I felt the soft fabric of the robe irritating the tips of my nipples as I became incredibly aroused. Getting up from the lounge I made my way to the bedroom, if I was going to lose myself in pleasure I was going to do it in the comfort and privacy of my bedroom.

I dropped the robe on the floor as I stepped up to the bed, turning the covers down and sliding between the cool sheets. Tweaking my nipples I felt a shudder run through me as I realised I was well and truly primed from thinking about making love to Brenda.

I reached into the bedside table for my favourite vibe, switching it on low and sliding it down to my clit. Just the slightest touch had me shuddering in delightful agony. I hadn't been this aroused in a long while. With one hand I tweaked and twisted my nipples, while the other played the toy back and forward, around and over my clit, driving me higher and higher.

Would she scream or moan? I think I'd want her to scream, to scream my name as I made her come. To feel her thrash as I tongued her clit or slid my fingers inside her, to watch her ride my face as I ate her out, watching her breasts heave above me as she desperately tried to breathe while I drove her insane with lust.

To feel her lips on my nipples, my neck, my clit, her fingers in my hair, hefting my breasts, sliding her fingers into me, twisting and turning while she sought out my climax. I could see her above me, looking down at me with those big brown eyes, her fingers deep within me as she coaxed me to come for her.

I suddenly stiffened, the climax catching me by surprise in its speed and intensity. I normally never came this fast. I realised that I had somehow buried the fingers of one hand deep inside me, while the other was driving the vibrator over my clit in frenzied circles. I could already feel another impending climax building as I squeezed my eyes shut again, letting my imagination rule again.

We were back at the pool, only this time it was Brenda and I who were kissing, the others watching us, Brenda's hand was wrapped in my hair, holding me firmly as she raped my mouth with her tongue, her other hand on my thigh and edging higher. One of my hands was on her neck, holding her close, while the other was toying with a nipple through the Lycra.

She was sitting on the edge of the pool, as I slipped back into the water, pushing her knees apart and moving between them, licking my lips as I slipped my finger under the edge of the fabric hiding her crotch, pulling it to one side to expose her to me. I could see the soft blonde curls, the folds wet and open, blood engorged, they were puffy and pink and oh so ready.

I moved in and swiped my tongue through her folds, feeling her juice's coat first my tongue, then my lips and chin as I made a meal of her, trying desperately to gather every last drop while she moaned and shuddered, her hands wrapped in my hair and pushing me into her hard.

I was aware that the others were there watching but I didn't care, too busy claiming Brenda as mine. They watched as I drove her more and more wild, her moans becoming screams, as I teased and sucked and bit her clit, feeling her ass rise off the ground to give me better access as the muscles in her thighs tensed. She was close, I could tell.

She begged, that southern lilt almost unrecognisable as she panted and groaned and moaned and screamed my name. Taking her clit into my mouth, I gently clenched it between my teeth as I sucked at it, while slamming two, then three then four fingers into her, as she screamed my name over and over incoherently.

I thrashed, I shuddered, I came in an explosion the like I hadn't experienced in years.

When I finally recovered, I was face down, my body still trembling and twitching in aftershocks.

"Wow" I breathed, completely spent.

The last time I had come like that was when Brooke and I had spent the night together with a pretty young waitress at a restaurant where we'd enjoyed dinner, she'd been oh so attentive to us, making it obvious that she was interested in us both, so we had waited for her to finish work and taken her home.

I hadn't done a threesome before that, but Brooke had and I was intrigued, so we'd taken her to bed and basically blown her mind all night. By the following morning that young girl had become very, very good at eating pussy. Mind you, she'd been taught by the best.

I'd managed to recreate that mind-blowing experience, the culmination of a full night's effort, with a simple, nasty, filthy fantasy about eating out Brenda Leigh Johnson. If the fantasy was that good, I couldn't wait for the reality.

With that thought I realised that no matter what my rational, cautious mind might counsel, it had been conclusively outvoted by my lust for her.

As I laid there, a lazy smile on my face, my eyes slowly focussed on the book by my bedside table. I was revisiting Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes for the first time in years and unbidden, a thought came to me. It was so appropriate, I murmured the words.

"Come Watson, the game is afoot:"

I laughed softly, oh yes it was, it was indeed.


	43. Chapter 43

**Post Pool Party**

Jane's viewpoint

Monday morning, back at work after a big weekend and back to more legwork, more chasing dead ends. We had half a dozen Barrett's unaccounted for, any of which may have been our sniper. We were trying to cross match owners with weapons, but at least two had been stolen from the owner's homes, so they could be anywhere.

Ana had wandered up, partly to chew over the case and partly to thank Maura and I for a wonderful afternoon. They'd enjoyed it immensely, so had we, it felt so easy to be friends with them, they'd become very close to us in such a short space of time, but it all felt so natural.

Ana looked up from where she was perched on my desk and over to where Brenda was sitting in her office, glasses on, working through paperwork. I followed her eyes and saw her there, she was back to being the Chief, the laughing happy women in the pool submerged under the suits and the rank and the responsibilities of the job. But it made me smile to remember the person she could be.

"Do you think she knows?" I looked at Ana, who had spoken quietly for my ears only.

"I don't know, she may have been oblivious or simply not recognised it as much beyond friendship" Ana nodded slowly.

"I hope it works out, she's a lovely woman, it's a shame she's alone" I looked back at Ana.

"Yeah, Sharon seems like good people. She must be serious to make a play and risk their friendship" She looked back at the Chief.

"Is there anything we can do to help" I shook my head sadly.

"Maura and I had a discussion about this last night. We decided to let it take its course, if a chance comes up we'll be supportive, but really the balls in their court" Ana grimaced.

"Well let's hope it doesn't take forever" I sighed.

"Hell yeah, we know all about that. We both felt the same way, but our fears held us back. We wasted so much time being friends when we could have, should have been much more" Ana looked at me and smiled, her voice turning upbeat.

"Well you got there in the end. We know Sharon wants Brenda, but is it reciprocated?"

"They're friends; look, Brenda works back almost every night, the only exceptions are either when she's having coffee with Sharon or having post-case drinks at O'Malley's. She eats lunch at her desk and doesn't seem to have much of a life outside work since her marriage failed. She deserves the chance to be happy and Sharon seems to want to give her that" Ana nodded, her eyes on the Chief in her office.

"Natalie and I discussed it as well last night…"

"And?"

"Well, you know Nat, she's all for dragging them to a cabin in the woods and locking them in until they end up at it like rabbits but hey, she's the impetuous one" I groaned, which Ana ignored as she continued. "I convinced her that we should at least give them a chance to make their minds up"

"Good call"

"Thank you. Anyway, Nat wants to invite them both over for dinner but I told her that might be a bit obvious, so expect an invite as well"

"Oh, so we're camouflage eh?"

"Pretty much"

"Oh well, as long as you're cooking, that's ok. No offence but from what you've told me Natalie's cooking isn't amongst the numerous reasons you keep her around" She grinned.

"No, she has other talents I value rather higher" "I gave her the look.

"Well duh, thank you Captain Obvious" She snickered.

"Although I do wonder what hidden talents you have that keeps convincing Maura your worth having around"

"Hey! I can cook thank you"

"Your one saving grace"

"I'll have you know I have lots of talents that Maura appreciates"

"Is a six inch long prehensile tongue one of them? That's the only reason I'd keep you around"

"Ana! That's gross"

Just think about the benefits Jane, I'm sure Maura would love it" I rolled my eyes at her.

"I told you before, I'm immune, Nat does that so much better"

"Oh, so that's why you keep her around then?"

"Amongst other, more interesting reasons"

"I'm sure" Ana's eyes flicked back to the Chief's office, her phone had rung and she was chatting to someone.

"I bet that's Sharon calling now, look at that smile" I looked up to see Brenda was indeed smiling happily.

"No bet, I don't like losing remember?"

"I do. So what do we do about her and Sharon?"

"Nothing for the moment, let's give them some time and space, they'll proceed at their own pace anyway" I watched as Brenda put the phone down and went back to her paperwork, favouring it with a smile that it didn't warrant.

"So we'll have to wait and see"

"Yep, besides, they may surprise us"

"Maybe"


	44. Chapter 44

**Brenda reflects on Sharon Part 1**

Brenda's viewpoint

I was sitting in the café, waiting on Sharon to arrive for our regular coffee and catch up.

Well I was; I wasn't exactly sure what Sharon was doing. She'd been a very different person at yesterday's party at Maura and Jane's, all happy and outgoing and very touchy feely. I'd never seen her like that before; it sure wasn't the Sharon I knew.

Or did I? I had to be honest; I didn't really know much about Sharon when I actually dug down. She had been married, had two kids and divorced, before she came to LA. I didn't know much more than that about her life outside the LAPD. Some interests; classical music, art, she ran and worked out in the gym regularly, obviously to keep that sensational body in shape.

I have to admit, she had the body of a woman at least ten years younger, she looked fantastic, especially in that modest black two piece she had on yesterday. I'd never seen her outside suits, but I was pretty impressed by what she normally hid under labels.

I wondered about her behaviour, maybe when she wasn't being scary Commander Raydor of FID she was like that, she was a more relaxed person with me outside work, but she had been very different yesterday. Much happier, far more relaxed, more… intimate? Was that what it was? Was that what she like that when she was relaxed and happy and carefree?

If it was then she should do it more often. I had to admit, once I got used to the touches and the brushes and the close attention and let myself relax, it had been nice to see her being so happy. It was a great afternoon, I hadn't done something that much fun in years, everyone was happy, having a good time, especially Sharon. I realised I hadn't heard her laugh that much ever.

Mind you, I was a good one to talk, I'd had a wonderful time, they were all good company and it had been really comfortable. Very comfortable indeed I thought, remembering their easy intimacy. Well, there was nothing wrong with that, they were in love and happy and good luck to them.

I didn't have a problem with them behaving like that, what they did in their private lives, in the privacy of their own homes, was entirely their business. By accepting their invitation, into their homes, into their lives, I had also accepted their relationships as well. Thinking about it, I had to admit, they were all beautiful women, in love, happy and they had willingly reached out the hand of friendship to Sharon and me, for which I was very grateful.

I caught a flash of navy blue coming through the door and looked up to see Sharon striding towards me, a wide smile on her face. I had to smile back, remembering her chasing Jane around the yard with us and tossing her in the pool, same smile, completely different circumstances.

"Hey sweetie" The greeting was almost familiar now, the quick bend over to give me a peck on the cheek wasn't. I smiled; maybe she was still feeling happy from yesterday.

"Hi Sharon, how was your day?"

"Not too bad, caught an OIS over in Hollywood Division with two uniforms, but it was pretty open and shut; security cameras caught the whole incident, he shot first, twice, before they shot back. He had a chance to surrender and didn't, so when he took the shot, it became a righteous shoot"

"Excellent, I'm glad you were able to come" She smiled again, sitting down.

"So am I" She reached over and placed her hand on my arm. "Before we chat, you ready for drinks?"

"Yes please" She left the hand on my arm as she waved at Sarah to bring the drinks over, I saw they were waiting for us, probably started them as Sharon walked in.

"I'm not looking forward to tonight I have to confess Sharon" She frowned, removing her hand.

"What's the matter?" She peered at me, a worried look on her face for a second before realisation set in. "Oh, the sniper case?" I nodded.

"Yeah, if he runs true to form another young woman's going to be dead by tomorrow morning. It's incredibly frustrating, we're really no closer to finding them than we were after the first victim, or the second, or the fifth"

Sarah arrived with the drinks; I savoured the chocolate as Sharon spoke.

"Look Brenda, you'll get them, sooner or later they all make a mistake or something turns up to link it all together" I nodded slowly, still feeling a bit useless. She reached over and laid her hand on mine.

"It's never easy, but you have to understand you can only do so much. You have a good team, great backup from Maura and Ana, you just need a break" I smiled at her, appreciating the sympathy. "In a way I have it a lot easier. Most of the time I have a shooter and a victim, both of them are known, it's just working out what the hell happened. You have to start from scratch"

"Thanks Sharon, that helps, really it does. I don't think I could do your job, it's tough to have to deal with all the hostility and you're stronger than me to be able to deal with all that" She smiled a happy smile.

"Thanks Brenda, I appreciate it, I think you're selling yourself short, but thanks anyway. Anyway, on to happier subjects; did you have fun yesterday?" I laughed, I couldn't help it.

"Oh good heavens yes, it was fun. You looked like you were having a good time too. I've never heard you laugh so much" She tilted her head, regarding me. "What?"

"You're a good one to talk Brenda Leigh, I was thinking the same about you" I ducked my head; then looked up at her smiling.

"Well I had a good time, they made us feel so welcome and it was good to be out having fun and being able to relax like that"

"That it was, I liked them; they were happy together and happy to have us there"

"Yes. I envy them that. They were obviously in love and so happy and comfortable, it was nice" She nodded slowly.

"Yeah, I envy them that too. It'd be nice to have that again" I nodded slowly.

"It would be, we just have to find it" She snorted gently.

"Plenty of fish in the sea, or so they say"

"I wouldn't know how to catch them. Dating? Ugh!"

"I don't know sweetie, speed dating, online dating services, singles nights, all those fun things people do when they don't want to be single"

"Don't talk about it, the thought of being out on the market again is scary" I shuddered at the thought of it. "I don't even wanna think about looking for someone Sharon, The thought of the singles scene is terrifying" Sharon smiled a small, quiet smile.

"Who knows Brenda, the answer may be closer to home than you think" I laughed.

"Seriously, whose single and worth chasing? Flynn" I don't think so. Sanchez? No thank you very much; Provenza? Eww!" She chuckled warmly.

"Hey, look at the couples yesterday; they ended up with someone they met through work, so it's not impossible. You just have to be looking"

"True, though what they have seems pretty special" She nodded.

"It is. Their so different, Jane and Maura are almost opposites, but it works for them. Natalie and Anastasia are a bit more similar, but they've been together for longer and I suppose that's to be expected in a strong relationship"

"I have to say, it was a bit intimidating walking in there and seeing all four of them, they're all attractive" She snorted.

"That's a nice understated turn of phrase you have there Brenda Leigh; attractive. I would have used the term beautiful or gorgeous or amazing, but attractive works I suppose" I snickered.

"Well it works as well as any I suppose. Honestly, I expected that Maura and Natalie would be, I mean you see it every day, but Jane and Anastasia were the surprise" Sharon nodded.

"Jane has a catwalk models figure and Anastasia; I had no idea she was hiding that" I smiled.

"You can't tell a book by its cover I suppose. Made me feel quite inadequate to be honest"

"Oh Brenda honey, you looked lovely, that swimsuit looked great on you. You have a great figure, damned if I know how given all the junk food you eat" I smiled.

"A healthy metabolism" She narrowed her eyes at me.

"Lucky bitch" I smiled widely.

"Jealous?" Out came the patented Raydor eye roll.

"Hell yes" I smiled.

"Don't be, you looked great"

"Yeah right" She scoffed.

"No honestly Sharon. Look, remember when we carried the plates into the kitchen after lunch" She nodded.

"Well, on the way back I overheard Natalie asking Maura how old she thought you were. Maura guessed mid-50s. That's when Natalie said that if she looked half as good as you at that age she'd be very happy" Sharon blushed slightly.

"Well I work hard at it" I nodded.

"Well honey, it's paid off very handsomely" She leaned in and placed her hand on mine.

"Thank you Brenda, it's nice to be noticed for it" Turning, she waved to Sarah. "We'd better have dinner as you need to get a good night sleep" I nodded, remembering what I was expecting to find tomorrow.

"Afraid so, still, I didn't want to miss our catch up" She smiled warmly at me.

"I didn't want to either; it's always good to see you, even if it was only yesterday"

The rest of the dinner was spent chatting about yesterday's party, work gossip and pretty much anything and everything, before we headed off home.

Walking out to where our cars were parked, not too far apart, Sharon stopped by mine and wished me a good night, then stepped up and gave me a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek before cheerily striding off to her car.

I watched her drive off with a wave, before I got behind the wheel and headed home.

I needed a good night's sleep to face tomorrow.

I didn't get it.

I found myself sitting on the sofa, nursing a big glass of merlot, while my mind worked away at a puzzle.

Sharon Raydor.

Something had changed; the Sharon I knew and had become familiar with had changed. The new one was chatty and happy and very warm and intimate. She'd been a wonderful friend in the last year, but it was as if we had taken it to a new level. My mind was wondering what had happened.

While the emotional '_Brenda Leigh_' side of was just happy to have a wonderful friend like her and happy that she seemed more at ease with me, the logical '_Chief Johnson_' side was worrying away, trying to work out why.

Sighing, I put the glass down, sat up straight and started to look at it logically.

Everything had changed yesterday at the party.

In fact it had changed sometime before lunch, as she had been very close, very touchy, very intimate if that was the word, during lunch.

So what had happened? I tried to remember anything special that may have done it. We had been laughing and carrying on, but nothing to indicate that sort of change. It also seemed to be with me, not the others. Maybe it was because she was more comfortable with me.

I still couldn't think of anything she had done. Was it something the others had done? They had chatted to her the same way they did to me, treated her exactly the same, friendly and happy and relaxed.

Was it something I had done? I didn't think so. I don't recall saying or doing anything to her, especially nothing that might have triggered the change in her relationship with me.

Now that was an interesting word; '_relationship_'. It covered a lot of things, with different meanings. I reached out and pulled out the dictionary that sat in the space under the coffee table top and looked it up.

I love dictionary's, they provide you with clear meanings in the English language, probably the best language in the world for lying, deceiving and concealing the truth. The word's apparent meaning might be fixed, but a change of tone or intonation could change what it said.

If you didn't have a starting point for a word's meanings though how could you ever get to the bottom of how people were trying to use them to lie and deceive.

There was a kernel of truth in everything someone said, because our subconscious understands the words we use, their real meaning, before our conscious brain tries to twist them.

I was a connoisseur of words, trying to know them, to understand their myriad meanings, to lead me to the truth that was hidden within how they were used.

I flicked across their well-worn pages, skipping to the rear half; then flipping to R.

Here we go, Relationship.

_Connection or association; the condition of being related. _A connection, yeah, we had one, friendship, or so I thought.

_Kinship; being related by blood or marriage._ No.

_(Music) The level or degree of affinity between keys, chords and tones._ Not that one either.

_A romantic or sexual involvement._ Well, that wasn't it, surely not?

Mind you, to be honest, Sharon's interactions with me had become a lot more intimate since lunch yesterday. She was very touchy feely, gentle presses, her hand on my hand or my arm. If I saw her doing it to a man, I would have thought she was flirting.

I let the dictionary drop to my lap, considering that word, flirting. I'd done it, something similar, when I had been interested in someone; I'd had it done to me as well.

Was Sharon… flirting with me? I ran over what she'd done, how she'd acted, the closeness, the intimacy of her behaviour. Flirting?

Up came the dictionary again; t_o insinuate emotional affection and/or sexual attraction through charm and playfulness; to play at courtship._

To insinuate affection, well yes, but sexual attraction? Was Sharon a lesbian? And attracted to me?

I had no idea she found women attractive. Mind you, I'd never asked. She had obviously found men attractive, two grown children attested to that, but women?

If she was, well that was her business. Sharon was too discrete to make a fuss about that even if she was, but why now, and why with me?

I mean, I wasn't a lesbian, I'd only ever been with men and I'd never been interested in women. Not that way.

_Lesbian; A female who is sexually or romantically attracted to other females._ Well Sharon might be but I wasn't. It was silly, why would Sharon think I'd be interested?

I'd never entertained any desire for a woman, never even thought about it. I didn't find it intriguing nor interesting, really, what was Sharon thinking?

Sharon had been friends with me for well over a year without showing any sign of her attraction to me, yet then decided she wanted to flirt with me all of a sudden. Why now? Something had obviously happened yesterday, but what?

I laid my head back, trying to remember everything that had happened yesterday before lunch.

I'd arrived, hopped in the pool, chased Jane around, swam, chatted to everyone, floated around… Oh, hang on.

I remembered. I'd been talking to Sharon; then had been distracted by seeing Jane and Maura kissing.

It had been so gently sensual and loving that that I'd been captivated. Well if I was honest, it had been more than that, it had been very sexual.

I felt my cheeks redden as I remembered that I'd actually found it quite arousing. It had been so long since I'd been intimate with anyone that I probably could have watched two people of any gender kissing and feel jealous. Well, that and aroused if I was honest.

Maura and Jane were beautiful, so obviously in love and seeing them like that, had made me want to feel something like that, to feel what they had.

"Oh no" I moaned out loud, letting my head fall back against the sofa. Sharon must have seen my reaction. I felt so embarrassed, all I wanted to do was die; she'd seen me and noticed my reaction.

That must have got her attention, made her think I was interested. But it seemed a bit unlikely to infer that I wanted to be like them, a lesbian, unless…

"Oh God no" I heard the pain in my voice. She must have been watching me and seen me watching Natalie and Anastasia kissing. That had been so beautiful and loving I hadn't been able to look away. Damn.

I'd watched them, I watched them pour themselves into that kiss, their love and their passion and it had, well it had affected me. Remembering back, I realised that I had found it arousing, they had been oblivious to the world, wrapped up in each other, in their love for each other.

I could see it clearly, kissing on the steps of the pool, the fingers on one hand entwined, the other on Natalie's arm and Anastasia's shoulder, leaning in and kissing, I could imagine that their tongues had been busy. It had probably only been ten or fifteen seconds, but it felt like minutes.

All they had done was kiss, but it had been beautiful. They were beautiful and what they had together was beautiful and I had reacted to that. Well, more than reacted, I had suddenly burned to see them like that. It may have been beautiful, but it had also been hot, so very hot. I could feel my body reacting to the memory still.

"Oh dear God" I whispered. I really wanted to just die now. Sharon had seen me and realised that I had seen it. She must also have seen how I reacted and thought I was interested. But I wasn't, not really. She must have seen me looking at them, saw me reacting and thought that I wanted to be like that.

I didn't really, I'd found it arousing, but that was just because I was lonely. If I wasn't I wouldn't have been interested. I was sure of it.

I sighed, my head falling forward onto my chest; then I sat up, reaching for my drink, before pulling my hand back.

I needed to think about this and I needed to be sober, not drunk. Besides, some young woman was going to be dead tomorrow morning and I owed it to them to be, if not well rested, at least not hung over.

I got up and made a coffee, I needed the caffeine, especially if I was going to think this one through. It didn't matter if it was going to keep me awake; there was no way in hell I was going to sleep through this anyway.

I sighed; it was going to be a very long night.


	45. Chapter 45

**Brenda reflects on Sharon Part 2**

Brenda's viewpoint

Standing in my apartment's small kitchen, I busied myself with making coffee as I tried to think through what I'd worked out.

Sharon had watched me become aroused watching two lesbians kissing.

Sharon had come to the conclusion that I was interested in their lifestyle.

Sharon was a lesbian or more likely bisexual, given she had kids.

Sharon was interested in me and was flirting with me.

Sharon wanted to pursue a relationship, a lesbian relationship, with me.

Yes, well. I let that series of thoughts wash over me, accepting them as likely the truth.

What the hell happens now?

I walked back to my sofa, coffee in hand and stared into the darkness outside my window.

Well, where did this leave me? And what do I do about it?

My initial thought was to tell Sharon at the first available opportunity that she was wrong and I just wanted her to be my friend.

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. I could imagine that conversation and it wouldn't be pretty.

I'd be lucky to salvage a friendship out of it and it would be her fault.

Wouldn't it?

I sat there, thinking that question over and over again as I sipped my coffee.

If there was one thing that the death of my marriage to Fritz had made me do, it was realise how little honesty I had shown myself.

I'd realised at the end of the first week, when he hadn't called, when I truly comprehended that he wasn't coming back, that I had deluded myself, refusing to face the truth.

I'd convinced myself that everything would work out, that we could make it work, when in fact we were just ignoring the elephant in the room, that what we wanted were entirely different things.

He'd looked after me, taken care of the house and the bills and Joel and keeping the place clean and being the dutiful husband, because he needed a wife to look after. In return I was supposed to become the mother of his 2.5 children and one cat, give up work and become a happy home maker.

I snorted at that, looking around at the disaster my unit had become over the months. I hadn't really taken proper care of myself before; it had become much worse since I'd been alone.

He wanted happy families and white picket fences and children and a wife to come home to at the end of the day.

I wondered when he realised that was never going to happen. How long had he stared into that particular abyss before he walked away from it. At least he had realised the truth and faced the consequences of it.

I had been happy to keep deluding myself, that Fritz would be happy with what I was willing to give him, unwilling to give up the life I had, the fact that I was Deputy Chief Johnson, head of Major Crimes at the LAPD before I was Brenda Leigh Johnson.

On that terrible day, when I realised that I was really alone, that he wasn't coming back, I'd spent the better part of it getting incredibly drunk, interspersed with crying jags, fed by even more alcohol. I'd ended up crying myself to sleep, or passing out, I wasn't sure which.

When I came to, I'd found I had vomited all over myself in my sleep. Somehow I'd managed not to choke to death on it while paralytic drunk, but that had been little consolation.

I'd been incredibly hung over, felt like I wanted to die and was still alone. I'd rung in sick and taken the next few days off.

I hadn't touched alcohol for a week after that and had not even been close to drunk since.

Once I recovered, I'd taken a good hard look at myself and how much of what had happened had been my fault. I guessed more than half had been mine; I'd refused to admit that Fritz wanted what I wouldn't, couldn't give. I'd also refused to see that he wasn't going to be satisfied with what I was prepared to give him.

The end result of that particular personal deceit was where I was now, alone in a darkened apartment, lonely and tired and confused.

I had found it ironic, I was lauded by my colleagues for my ability to discern the truth from the deceptions, but hadn't even been able to face the lies I'd been telling myself.

I'd sworn an oath that from that day forward I would be brutally honest to myself, no matter what.

Now it was time to live up to that oath.

Was it Sharon's fault? That she had sought out more from me than just friendship.

On one hand it was, I'd been happy to have her as a friend, to be the supportive friend to her and have her be mine. Her decision to push beyond that for a relationship had changed that between us, probably forever.

When she looked at me now, what did she see, Brenda, her friend, or Brenda the potential lover? Could I look at her as a friend, or would I see her wanting to be… intimate with me?

On the other hand, Sharon had not done anything in the more than a year we had been friends, nothing to make me think that she had seen me as anything other than a friend, so it was obvious to me that she had respected boundaries, even though she must have been attracted to me on some level.

That had only changed when she had witnessed my reaction to how the couples had behaved yesterday. I had failed to control my reactions to what was appropriate, instead showing that I was aroused by their behaviour.

Without those cues, I doubt the situation would have arisen, Sharon would still be just a friend, we would still have our boundaries and I wouldn't be having this late night introspection session.

In a way, it meant a lot to me that Sharon was willing to take a chance, risk our friendship, to pursue something more with me. She must care for me more than I realised. She's no fool, Sharon must have understood what she was risking when she made the decision to open herself up to me, but she thought I was worth it.

I smiled gently; it was nice to think that someone cared for me enough to do that. I liked Sharon, she was smart and strong and beautiful and sexy and I really liked the side of Sharon that I had seen recently. But I wasn't a lesbian; I wasn't looking to sleep with her.

I wasn't a lesbian; I'd never desired a woman before, never really even thought about it before.

Oh I'd seen things on television or on the movies where it had been implied or explicitly shown that characters were lesbians, usually very attractive actresses. You were supposed to find them desirable and attractive and they were usually shown to be interesting and engaging characters, so you would find yourself empathising with them as part of the show.

I remembered seeing that movie about ballerinas with Natalie Portman, which had included her in a lesbian scene, which had been quite… intense now that I thought about it.

There were shows on television where major characters were gay, plus that show on cable where all the female characters were lesbians. I hadn't seen it but I'd heard about it, apparently even straight people loved the show.

I'd seen women walking together, hand in hand; I'd idly taken note and promptly forgotten about it, not really engaged with it; but now…

I sighed, this whole mess had started because I had stared at Maura and Jane, then got all hot and bothered by Anastasia and Natalie. If they hadn't been so…

No, that wasn't their fault either. I knew what I was getting into when I accepted their invitation to come to their place, for a pool party no less. I knew that Maura and Jane were lovers, even if they weren't 'out and proud'. So I shouldn't have been surprised that they were open about their sexuality in their own home.

Natalie and Anastasia were 'out', so I had even less excuse there than with Maura and Jane. I'd been to their home for god's sake, seen them together, seen them behaving like a normal couple, so I could hardly blame them for behaving like that at the home of their friends, who were also a couple.

They'd done nothing wrong. The only person who had done something wrong was me, I'd been the one gawking at them.

Why had I done that? I knew that they were both lesbian couples, so why had seeing them kissing like that affected me so much?

Well, I was lonely, I had to admit that. With the exception of the comfort that Ana and Natalie had given me when I'd broken down at their place, Sharon's touches and hugs were the most human contact I'd had in the year since Fritz walked out. By necessity I'd learned to cope with the loneliness but I didn't enjoy it. I missed the contact, the intimacy, the sheer feeling of humanity that came from another's touch.

I'd become aroused watching them because they had something I didn't, love and happiness and intimacy and comfort and everything that came from a loving partner. I missed that and I wanted it. God, I didn't want it, I needed it.

The fact that both of them had been beautiful had made it even easier to be aroused, to watch two beautiful women loving each other. It had been easy to let myself be carried in the moments, watching both couples.

I'd watched them and imagined myself in their place. It hadn't been an 'I wish I was kissing Natalie now' thing, just a visceral wish that it was me being kissed, being loved.

It had been patently obvious that Natalie and Anastasia's behaviour on the pool steps was just a prelude, like their intimacy on the couch as they told us about how they had got together. They were going to go home that night and make love, just like they kissed, deeply and lovingly.

Maura and Jane were going to do the same thing, which was patently obvious as well.

Basically both couples were going to fuck their brains out later and there was nothing wrong with admitting that I wanted exactly the same thing.

I hadn't taken what I was thinking to its logical conclusion I suppose, which was realising that there were going to be two women making love, naked, intimate. What would it be like; slow, gentle and loving or hard and sweaty and intense?

I could imagine Jane would be all about power and passion, Maura seemed softer and sweeter, so I could imagine it would be gentle and slow.

With Anastasia and Natalie, I imagined that it would be intense; their personalities were a lot more similar than Jane and Maura's. Neither really struck me as a slow and tender type, Natalie was outgoing and exuberant while Anastasia was strong and powerful. The thought of their bodies wrapped around one another came to me strongly and I blinked.

Dear god, was I getting aroused again thinking about it? I bit my lip. Oh my lord I was.

The thought of them together was an enticing one. I tried hard to block the images out of my mind, to try and get back to what I was thinking of.

I had to admit though; the images had come almost unbidden, probably because it was the closest I had got to anything like real sex in more than a year. I took care of myself when I needed it but it wasn't a patch on the real thing.

The thought of having someone's body entwined with mine sent tingles through my body, I was needy and lonely and watching two women doing what I wanted to do had turned me on.

Damn, now I was thinking about what they would do together. My mind had obviously fixated on them because they were right there in front of me. Sighing I leaned back, closing my eyes and thought about it.

It must be different. Unlike sleeping with a man, where it was all drive and power and feeling hard muscles under your hands and hardness inside you, two women would be all soft bodies and curves and breasts. Without a cock to impale yourself on, you would have to spend time on each other's breasts and search out your partner's erogenous zones.

It would have to be different because every guy I ever slept with wanted the same things, to have me go down on him and to get his cock inside me.

Without a cock to fixate on, women must be more about the whole experience. The emotional side as well as the physical, mind you the physical must be pretty good too. Good enough to keep those two couples together and interested.

I wasn't oblivious to how good they looked or the reactions they got from everyone who saw them. My squad, other officers, the senior officers of the LAPD, all had been affected by them. Each of them was beautiful in their own way and could have their choice of men. Even Jane, probably the least 'feminine' of them, got heads turning when she strode into a room; she had energy and power about her that others found compelling.

I'd seen her in a way that no one else at work had, wet and laughing by the pool and looking lovely. Anyone who cared to look past the fierce, 'don't mess with me' façade could see the beautiful woman underneath, anyone who saw that would want it.

So they all could have anyone they wanted, but they chose to be with another woman. Why?

I don't think they were born gay, from what both Jane and Natalie had mentioned neither had been with a woman before their respective partners, so they had consciously chosen to love a woman instead of a man. What had changed their minds and their sexuality?

Was it simply that they were able to look past labels to see the person offering love, ignoring the physical for the emotional. Well, not ignoring it, but realising that the sex of the person mattered less than the worth of the person within the skin?

Anastasia and Natalie had obviously found love in each other, they equally obviously didn't care that their partner was a woman; the important thing, looked like the only thing really, was that they had found love and weren't afraid who knew it.

Jane and Maura had survived things that could have destroyed a less solid bond, they had each other and that was what mattered, not that they somehow conformed to society's expectations of what 'appropriate' love was.

Besides, it was the 21st century; surely we could put that particular prejudice behind us, the same as the one about what skin colour we wore mattered. Cut each of us and we all bleed the same colour. I'd seen enough dead people to know that. Same with gays and lesbians, they were ordinary people trying to live their lives, looking for happiness just like the rest of us.

I understood that some people found gays and lesbians threatening, it challenged their worldview or their moral values or their religious upbringing. I'd never really had a position on them; it hadn't really been an issue before my current situation, before four beautiful lesbians strolled into my life a few weeks ago and changed it in ways I was only now realising.

Looking at them now, I had to admit I liked them for who they were, not what they were; for the fact that they had offered me their friendship, not for the fact that they worked with me. The fact that they slept with women was irrelevant to how I saw them. I respected the jobs they did well and their choice of bed partner had nothing to do with to that.

They were wonderful people and I was very happy to have them in my life.

To be completely honest, I had to say I liked both partners in each relationship. In many couples I had met I had liked one of the people, but not really been impressed by the other partner; with Jane and Maura and Anastasia and Natalie I could honestly say that I liked all of them as people.

Maybe it was because they were all women; they all had their emotional side, which they could show without any macho posturing. They were also confident enough in their relationships that they could be silly or foolish or open or emotional in front of others and they didn't seem to care.

I smiled as I remembered helping Maura throw Jane into the pool, we'd all been laughing fit to burst, even Jane, and no one had cared that they might look silly or foolish while doing so.

Same when Natalie and Anastasia were explaining how they came to be together, it had been at times an emotional story but they had shared that with all of us openly, confident we wouldn't judge them for it.

All of them were admirable people, people I happily called my friends, their sexual preferences didn't matter to me. It wasn't like they wanted to sleep with me. I snorted; they had much more attractive alternatives anyway.

Sharon on the other hand…

Sharon did want to sleep with me, wanted to be intimate with me, have a relationship with me.

She obviously found me interesting and attractive and desirable, which I found very flattering. After a year alone having someone want you is nice, especially if it's someone attractive, which Sharon undoubtedly was.

She must have decided that after a year, given I wasn't seeing anyone and had made no move to see anyone, that she would have to be the one to make a move. We were close enough that I'd have told her if I was interested in anyone, so she knew I wasn't.

She now knew that I found other women arousing, thanks to what had happened yesterday.

I had to be honest, I had found them arousing. Seeing beautiful women together had left me longing for what they had. I'd rationalised that it was due to the fact that I was lonely, but it had been more than that.

I'd little personal knowledge of lesbians, their lives, their personalities, their lifestyle, then Natalie and Ana and Jane and Maura had walked into my life and I'd been exposed to them in ways I'd never experienced before.

Honestly, they were lovely people, who just happened to be into women rather than men.

I shook my head, if my experiences were anything to go by they may have made the right choice. My first husband, Dave, had done enough damage to my psyche that it had taken me years before I trusted another man enough to have more than a polite conversation with them. Then there had been that mess with Will, which had dogged my career and my life all the way out here to LA.

The thing with Fritz had started out full of good intentions but had ended badly, and I hadn't found a decent man in between all of them to look at as much more than an emotional pit stop.

Most of them hadn't really understood me, preferring to see the pretty exterior and ignoring the reality of what I did for a living.

I sighed, given my past history, it's a wonder I hadn't sworn off men all together.

Maybe Sharon had. She'd been married and it had ended badly, leaving her with a couple of kids. Maybe she had foresworn men afterwards and that was why she was into women now.

So Sharon was either bisexual or a lesbian. That didn't change who she was, I still liked her; her choice of bed partner didn't change that. What had changed was that she wanted me as that bed partner.

I'd reacted poorly to that idea when I'd first realised that was what she wanted. Why?

It wasn't like she was unpleasant or pushy, at least not with me anymore; plus she was definitely not unattractive. I liked her a lot and she obviously liked me a lot as well; liked me enough to want to be more than friends.

Was it the idea of sex with a woman was distasteful? I had to admit that I knew almost nothing about lesbian sex, but it couldn't be more 'icky' than sex with men. I'd take sex with Sharon or Natalie or Maura or Anastasia or Jane over climbing back into bed with Will Pope any day.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, still wondering what the hell I had been thinking back then, how I could have been so stupid to be his mistress, to actually believe his promises to leave his wife and kids for me.

"Aah!" The thought alone was enough to make me slightly ill now.

So I was willing to admit that sex with a beautiful woman was more desirable than sex with Pope. Did that make me a lesbian or simply intelligent?

Closing my eyes, I thought back to what I had seen yesterday. Jane and Maura, so different physically, Jane; tall and lean, striking and full of power and intensity, while Mura was softer, glamorous, sunny and captivating. What would they be like together? They would look so different lying naked wrapped together in the sheets, olive skin on alabaster, dark curls and honey blonde spread out and entangled.

Hands wrapped in each other's hair, pressed together kissing like yesterday, expressing their love and passion physically, it would be so hot.

I felt a familiar heat starting to settle in my groin, the thought of them together was arousing me again; I licked my lips, which were suddenly dry.

Well, there was proof that it wasn't the idea of lesbian sex that was unattractive; in fact I was having a hard time dragging my mind away from the images of them together.

Shifting uncomfortably on the sofa, I thought of Natalie and Anastasia together. I don't know why, I obviously had no issues with the concept of lesbian sex, I didn't need to keep going, but I found I didn't want to stop.

Natalie, all striking features, a lush mouth, long golden hair and a lovely body, she would stoke most people's fantasies. Anastasia, those wonderful grey eyes you could lose yourself in, her wickedly curved body, enticing breasts and a smile that could melt snow.

Oh yes, those two together would be beautiful, I could imagine them as they explored each other's body's. Having been together so long they would know exactly how to draw maximum pleasure from each other; the room would be full of moans and gasps, as they moved as one, touching and kissing each other, dragging out the others pleasure.

I gasped; I was suddenly hot, aware of my body's ache and I was so aroused it hurt.

"Well, that answered that question" My voice was loud in the silent room. Indeed it did. The thought of either couple together had been incredibly arousing, to the point that normally, if I was this aroused, I'd try and relieve the ache myself.

I tried to tell myself it was because I was so lonely that the thought of sex in general would do it, but I realised that I was kidding myself.

Being in close proximity to both couples had done it; I had been taken in by their love for each other, the easy intimacy, their warm sensuality, all had combined to draw me to them, to the point that I not only envied what they had, I wanted it too.

I wanted to be wanted, to be desired, to be loved.

I didn't want to continue on the barren path I was on now; I looked around at what my life had become, a small, solitary apartment, a job that consumed me and a cold bed each night.

I wanted the same thing they had and, if that mean the love of a woman well, I could do a lot worse than Sharon Raydor.

Sharon, those knowing deep green eyes that saw so much, that raised eyebrow and the sardonic quirk of her lips, the warm, rich voice and the sunshine of her laugh and the softness of her skin.

I realised I had enjoyed the closeness we'd had yesterday and tonight, the touches and the flirting and the smiles and the sideways glimpses and the intimacy.

I wondered what Sharon would be like in bed, her hair all mussed and her eyes so soft and that lovely body stretched out across the sheets. After yesterday I had a much better idea of what she would look like. That swimsuit she had worn had made it clear that her body was a work of art, well that and damned hard work.

She would look lovely; all that shining auburn hair spread across a pillow, or cascading around her face as she leaned over you, that voice, oh that voice would sound like honey in your ear, or pure sex moaning in ecstasy.

I stopped, realising that my imagination had run away with me. Not only was it picturing what it would be like having sex with her, I was finding it was turning me on.

Sharon Raydor wanted me. She wanted me to be her lover, to take me to bed and make me hers.

Did I want that? It seemed it was there, on offer if I wanted it. But did I?

I wasn't sure if I wanted it. I might, but I wasn't sure. That was the plain and honest truth.

This was a pretty momentous step, a step into the unknown. Frankly it scared me, on several levels.

If I went this way, and it didn't work out, I might lose a friend, not that I had a surplus of those to go around. Mind you, if I tried to stop it now and confronted Sharon, I might lose that as well, for nothing.

I wasn't sure if I could be with a woman, if I was capable of being with one. Men were easy, give them the physical release what they wanted and they were happy with that, I expected a woman would want a lot more than straight physical intimacy; it would have to involve a lot of emotional intimacy as well, something that would require me to give away a lot more of myself than I had with most men.

To be that intimate meant being open, letting barriers and defences come down, I wasn't sure how well I could handle being that open and vulnerable. On the other hand, there weren't too many people I could be that open with; Sharon was probably one of the few.

If I was to step into a relationship with a woman, what did I want?

I wanted love, intimacy, to be held and cuddled and told I was desirable and beautiful and to have someone who really meant what they were saying.

I wanted to hold someone, someone who wanted me and who I wanted back, to be vulnerable and comforted and who would be vulnerable to me and let me give comfort in return. To be able to tell them that they were beautiful and loving and worthy of being loved in return, to be able hold them and cherish them.

I wanted a lot more than a one night stand that was for sure. Mind you, I couldn't imagine Sharon would go to all this trouble, risk so much, for a one night stand either. I'm sure with her looks and confidence she would have no trouble finding someone for that with little effort, instead she was making the effort to draw me in, to seduce me. She wanted me for a relationship, not a fling.

Could I be what she wanted? I didn't know. I didn't know enough to make that decision, to know that answer.

I realised that I needed to talk to someone about this, someone I trusted. Normally I would have chatted to Sharon, danced around the subject until she pinned me down and dragged it from me, she'd done that before, but I couldn't talk to her about this, for obvious reasons.

The number of other people I could chat to was severely limited, even more so given the subject matter and the implications.

Reviewing the options, I realised there was really only one person I could talk to about this, but I understood that she would treat it with the utmost confidence and discretion, plus she was a part of the problem, but would be logical about what it meant.

I needed to talk to a doctor, but not just any doctor, my doctor; Doctor Maura Isles.


	46. Chapter 46

**The sixth sniper attack; the team gets a break**

Jane's viewpoint

In what was becoming an all too familiar, all too depressing refrain, we had another dead sniper victim and nothing much to show for it.

Kelly Connolly, a studio session singer with ambitions of making it solo, now never to be realised. She'd been shot as she ate breakfast. Same MO, same result.

I could sense Maura's frustration as she dealt with the body, we were going to find out she'd died from a .50 calibre bullet to the head; I could have told you that before we got the call.

In this case the entry was just under her left ear, the exit wound blowing the right side of her head out, with the usual mess all over the nearest wall. Anastasia had managed to work out the firing point a lot easier than normal, as Miss Connolly had been sitting a fair way into her apartment, so the actual field of ground with a view into her location was pretty restricted. Flynn, Provenza and Tao had headed out with the Black and Whites to search the three likely locations, while we finished up here.

I looked over the balcony, to see an ever growing mob of the media outside, with Natalie trying to calm them down enough to issue a statement, which pretty much amounted to the same thing she had said the last three times. Unfortunately they were starting to get feral; I was expecting the 'Inept LAPD' stories to start replacing the 'Mad Sniper' stories on tonight's news.

While it was hard on Nat, I was simply glad it was her, not me; I didn't have the patience for that shit. I smiled humourlessly, imagining me down there, on the receiving end of their attention. I could imagine reaching for my weapon in less than two minutes left to their 'tender mercies'.

I felt a presence walk up and stand next to me, looking up I expected it was Maura, but instead it was Brenda.

"I see the ladies and gentlemen of the media have arrived"

"I see you're in a polite mood today Chief. Me, I'd call them vultures, or maybe hyenas if I was feeling charitable" Her smile was warm.

"Perhaps it's a good thing we don't have you doing media then Jane"

"Not one of my core skills I'm afraid. I leave that to Natalie, she's good at it"

"Don't worry, they get to her as well" I looked over at Ana, who had stepped up on my other side. The Chief glanced across at her.

"I was wondering if we could cross train Jane as media liaison, Natalie could do some detective work" Ana shuddered.

"No thanks. Jane shooting several of them might encourage the rest to behave, at least for a while, but I wouldn't want Nat running around with a firearm. She's deadly enough with words; I don't want to give her a gun as well"

"I wouldn't give her a gun for the same reason I wouldn't give Maura one" They both looked at me with questions in their eyes.

"I wouldn't feel safe with anyone coming between Maura and a new pair of Jimmy Choo's. That's a risky proposition even without a gun" They both nodded sagely for a moment.

"With Natalie its lingerie, she has a taste for the really nice stuff; I like looking at her in it, and unwrapping her, I just don't want to look at the price tags" We both looked at Brenda, who looked at us with a 'who me' expression.

"I don't have any such indulgences" Ana looked at her with a raised eyebrow, then across at me.

"That whole chocolate thing must have been my imagination" I nodded.

"Her desk's top drawer must be something I imagined as well"

"Honestly, I don't know what you two are talking 'bout" Ana snickered.

"Apparently no one gets between you and the candy machine on a bad day" Brenda tried to look affronted.

"Oh for heaven's sake, that's not true!" I grinned.

"I've heard the stories, a candy deprived Chief is a dangerous creature, why do you think half the squad keeps some in their draw? Emergency rations in case you run out" She smiled to herself.

"I know, but I'll ask you to keep that quiet. I don't want them knowing I know"

"My lips are sealed Brenda" I smiled.

"Same here Chief"

"I appreciate you both showing some discretion" I looked back out at the horizon, peering at the three likely shooting points. I could see Black and Whites at all three locations.

"Shit we need a break; we're no closer than we were after the first victim" Ana looked over at me.

"All it takes is one clue, that's enough to give us a starting point" Brenda nodded slowly.

"Everyone makes a mistake eventually"

I was about to reply when the Chief's cell went off. Brenda checked the caller ID before answering it.

"Yes, Lieutenant Flynn" There was a pause as Flynn relayed something. "We're on our way"

Shutting the phone Brenda looked at us both.

"Flynn's found a footprint he thinks is our shooter"

Fifteen minutes later we were clustered around a footprint on a paving stone in a local park; the area surrounding the stone was wet and the print was made of dried mud.

Anastasia took one look at the print and stood up.

"That's a US military desert combat boot, current issue" She looked at Flynn. "Nice catch Andy"

Flynn nodded, a toothpick playing between his teeth. He picked it out to speak.

"Is it just me or does that look like a very small footprint?" The Chief nodded.

"So we're looking for a woman" Ana nodded in agreement.

"Looks like" The Chief looked up at Buzz.

"Lots of photos please Buzz, if you would. This is the first real break we've had" Provenza, in that silly hat of his, peered down at the print.

"Looks like they were heading back to the parking area, they must have taken the shot from back that way" We all looked back towards the direction the print had come from. The Chief nodded.

"Spread out everyone, conduct a very careful search, especially in anything that looks like it might have given some cover"

I tagged along with Ana, figuring she would probably have the best idea of what we were looking for. She was carefully moving around bushes, looking back towards the direction of Connolly's apartment and then peering in under the bushes.

"What exactly are we looking for?"

"The Barratt uses a bipod to steady itself. When it's fired the 50 cal has quite a kick, so the recoil's pretty strong. The bipod will drag back into the dirt a bit when fired. I'm looking for scrapes in the dirt"

With some idea of what we were looking for, I dived in and helped her search. We worked down a small slope, when Ana stiffened. I looked at curiously.

"There, that's perfect" I followed her pointing arm to see a small group of bushes in a small fold in the ground.

"Ok, I'll bite. Why?"

"The bushes provide concealment, the dip in the ground means that unless you're either directly in front or behind, or practically standing on top of it from the sides, you won't see down into the cleft., so very little chance of seeing the muzzle flash"

We made our way forward, working around the edge of the bushes, peering in under. The area under looked like it had been cleared and I could see a disturbance in the dirt near the front of the bushes.

"Ana, I think this is it" She made her way round to where I was and leaned in.

"That's it, good one Jane. She scraped out a space to lie in wait, that's the bipod scrape. If we're lucky…" She searched the dirt nearby. "Nope, you can see where she picked up the spent round here" I could see a small disturbance in the surface. We both backed out and looked off into the distance. We could see the victim's building in the distance. I whistled.

"Looks like a clear shot straight in. What do you think the distance is, about 3,000 feet?"

"More like 3,500, but easily doable" We waved to catch the Chief's eye and we were soon joined by the squad. I pointed out what we had found and Brenda got Buzz to photograph everything.

"So it looks like our sniper is a woman, either current or ex-military, based on their footwear" Tao shook his head.

"Sorry Chief, you can pick up the boots from any army surplus store, easy"

"Good point Lieutenant, but not a Barrett anti-material rifle" She turned to Ana.

"Agent Romanov, we need a list from the military of all current and past female snipers who trained on the Barrett". Ana nodded and turned to walk off, pulling out her cell to start the ball rolling. The Chief turned to me.

"Detective Rizzoli, would you please run the database again, see if any of the weapons were sold to a woman" I nodded, although I didn't think they were, it didn't hurt to check. That's what cops did after all.

"Lieutenant Provenza, would you and Detective Sanchez please check the closest houses, see if anyone noticed anything, a strange noise perhaps, this morning. Get as many uniformed officers as you need, if anyone complains get them to call me" They nodded, turned and walked off towards the closest houses down the slope.

"Lieutenant Tao, would you check to see if there are any surveillance camera's covering the car park and the streets in the area. Perhaps our mysterious white van will make another appearance."

"Gotcha Chief"

"Detective Gabriel, would you please check with Hollywood Region, see if any of their patrols spotted anything in the slightest unusual around here last night or this morning"

"Sure thing Chief"

"Lieutenant Flynn, would you please accompany Buzz back to the office and walk the boot images down to the lab. I want you to accompany them to ensure they get priority treatment. If anyone gives you any trouble well, you have my number" Flynn grinned lazily.

"You got it Chief"

"And detectives!" We all stopped and turned to look back at her.

"This is our first break. We've got six dead women counting on us to find their killer. Let's move quickly, we've only got six days to find our shooter"

We all nodded, knowing that if we didn't, we were going to have a seventh dead woman on our hands. Brenda spoke again, that Georgia accent a little more pronounced.

"Oh, and good work, everyone, good work indeed"


	47. Chapter 47

**Brenda seeks a consult**

Maura's viewpoint

I was sitting in my office, finishing up my report on the sniper's latest victim, depressingly similar to all the others, with nothing new to be revealed from her body that we didn't already know when I received a phone call from Chief Johnson, asking me if I might be available for a lunch date.

Intrigued, I promised to get back to her and rang Jane. She was still out in the field chasing leads and wouldn't be back in time for lunch, so I was available for the Chief.

Half an hour later I met her at the foyer and we wandered outside, heading towards a cluster of shops. I thought she sounded a little nervous, but couldn't be sure.

"I think there are a number of cafés this way Maura, although I'm not exactly certain what the food's like in them or even what they're offering" Surprised, I stopped.

"Brenda, if you're interested, there is a rather good macrobiotic café about five minutes' walk in that direction" She nodded pensively, before we started walking in the desired direction.

"You don't get out of the office much at lunch Brenda?" She shook her head.

"Mostly I work at my desk or get something delivered, so no, not really" I smiled, hopefully encouragingly.

"Sometimes it helps to get out, some fresh air, sunshine, fresh food, it all helps reduce stress levels, improve digestion and helps you get through the day" Brenda nodded, obviously preoccupied.

"If it would help you Brenda, I'd be happy to arrange for a weekly luncheon where we get out of the office and eat somewhere else. I find I spend too many lunch breaks sitting at my desk as well, especially with Jane out in the field so much lately" She looked across at me, smiling.

"As long as Jane doesn't think I'm taking you on a date, it's bad for team cohesion when a jealous detective shoots her boss" I smiled back, thinking it's good to see her smile.

"I think Jane is aware of the negative career repercussions of such a course of action and would restrain her impulsive nature; if we asked nicely".

"Then by all means, we must ask nicely" We shared a smile at that thought.

With the ice broken we chatted about a few of the cases on our respective desks before arriving at the café with its cute name, _Grabbit & Run_.

Walking in and being seated, we perused the menu and ordered. The selection was eclectic, but there was enough to satisfy most palates, even Jane liked eating here.

Small talk took up a few minutes before I realised that the Chief was dancing around the reason for the invitation. Normally I would let things go at their pace but whatever it was had bothered her enough to ask to see me, so I decided to press the issue. As I did I reflected that being around Jane so much was starting to rub off on me.

"So Brenda, was there something specific I can help you with? I assume it's not exactly work related, otherwise you would have come and seen me in my office or we would be chatting in yours" She looked at me for a moment, before sighing.

"I need your help Maura, I need your advice, but I'm not sure where the hell I start"

"Take your time Brenda, start with whatever you feel comfortable talking about" Brenda looked down and started fidgeting with the cutlery on the table, clearly buying time.

"It's a… personal matter Maura, and I suppose I need your advice because you have more experience on this than anyone else I can talk to" I tilted my head to regard her, wondering what I could do to help.

"I'm always available for you Brenda, so please feel free to ask me anything" She looked up as the waitress arrived with our meals, obviously grateful for the distraction. We spent a minute or two quietly eating before she next spoke.

"This is really nice Maura, thank you for bringing me here" Letting the silence work for me, something Jane had described as a useful interrogation tool for getting people to talk, I smiled at Brenda and lifted an eyebrow. She looked down at the plate for a moment, before looking back up at me.

"I have a problem and need to consult with a doctor, specifically you" Me?

"I'm not a registered medical practitioner Brenda, if it's a health matter…" She shook her head as she interrupted.

"No, nothing like that Maura, although my mental health might be another matter" I waited as she fidgeted some more before she finally looked up at me.

"Maura, what made you embark on a relationship with Jane?" I sat back; this wasn't quite what I had been expecting.

"I'm not sure exactly what you mean Brenda. I was in love with Jane, I had been for quite a while before we took our relationship to something beyond friendship" She nodded slowly.

"What did you expect from it, what were you looking for" I thought for a moment.

"I wanted to move from being friends to being at a place where I could openly acknowledge what we had together. We were best friends, our lives were already entangled impossibly closely, if it wasn't for the fact that we were in love I am sure we would have matched the medical description of dangerously co-dependent" She smiled weakly, but it was obvious that wasn't the answer she was looking for. I leaned forward and tried again.

"I wanted to go from friendship even if it was a very close one, to a place where both Jane and I could be completely open and honest with each other. I wanted to be able to act on the impulses I had been having for a very long time, to touch and be touched, to love and be loved. The alternative was becoming too painful to contemplate, to love someone but not have them" Brenda pushed her lunch around the plate for a moment before continuing.

"Did you know what to expect?" I sat back, thinking about that question.

"Honestly no. I'd had previous experience with women, but that turned out to be only a rough guide. I'm not talking about the physical side, it was the emotional aspects and quite frankly, I was unprepared for the level of commitment and raw emotion involved"

"How so, you knew you loved Jane, what was different" I considered my response for a moment, organising my thoughts.

"With previous lovers, there had been a level of intimacy. With one of them, who I had been involved with for some time, there had been a level of openness and trust which I had believed was love. I thought he was the love of my life" I smiled softly. "I had no idea of what I was talking about Brenda. Jane stormed into my life and made it hers almost from the moment we met. She was my friend and my colleague and my biggest supporter all at the same time" I took a quick sip of water.

"Jane dragged me out of my comfort zone and into the big wide world, far from the tightly confined, safe place I inhabited. She took the life I had up until then and upended it, shaking it until I fell out and into something completely different. A world of experiences and wonders and warmth and friendship" I looked at Brenda, shaking my head in wonder.

"When she became my lover, she poured everything she had into me, the raw emotional outpouring almost drowned me, but I wanted to drown, to be submerged in her warmth and protectiveness and desire and her sheer love for me, it dwarfed anything I could have ever imagined. Comparing Ian to Jane was like comparing a fire to an inferno. One warmed me, the other consumed me. There was no way I was expecting anything like that" I shook my head again. "I didn't expect it, but having experienced it, I cannot live without it"

Brenda looked at me, her gaze unfocussed, obviously taking in everything I had said. Finally she came back to me and spoke.

"What made you seek out a female lover in the first place?" I looked at her for a moment, as I put two and two together very quickly.

"I was open to sexual experiences Brenda. I'd been approached several times by women who were interested in me. To that point I had been exclusively heterosexual, but I was open to new experiences and the woman I agreed to explore that part of me with was attractive, confident and experienced. Addison showed me that there was pleasure to be derived from a woman that was different from a man. Not necessarily better, but certainly different"

"Do you have a preference?"

"I'd had more male than female partners, partly because there were more men who were both interested in me and of interest to me, than women willing to approach me. Both were satisfying, or at least I thought they were, until Jane" She nodded slowly.

"What is it like, with a woman?" I looked at her as the 'aha' moment that Jane described, when all the clues came together, washed over me.

"It's very different with a woman. With a man it's very physical, men are primarily physical creatures, not that they don't have emotional capabilities, but evolution has made that a secondary capability compared to their physicality. Society may be changing that slowly, but they're normally not as in touch with their emotions as women. With women, it's partly physical, but there's a much stronger emotional content, the emotional experience starts with the first touch, the first kiss. The foreplay with a woman in many cases is as important and almost as satisfying as the actual sex, in fact much of the time the two are almost indistinguishable, with orgasm occasionally achievable during prolonged foreplay" I paused, making her look up at me, before I continued.

"If there is a pre-existing relationship the intimacy is more pronounced, as you have a stronger foundation to build on"

There was silence for almost a minute as Brenda processed the information. I had a very good idea where she was coming from and why she was here, but I decided to let her tell me in her own time. Finally she looked at me.

"It didn't take you long to work it out did it Maura?" I smiled.

"No, the clues were there, it was just a matter of putting them together" She smiled.

"If you ever want a career change to detective, let me know, I'll find a spot for you in my squad" I laughed gently.

"Thank you, but I believe I will leave that particular career path to Jane, one detective in the family is enough" She nodded and looked at me, obviously thinking it through. I leaned in and asked her.

"So, do you know what you want to do, or are you still trying to decide?" She shrugged and then leaned back.

"I still don't know Maura. I sure as hell wasn't expecting it, but now it's here I'm trying to understand what I'm in the middle of"

"Brenda, there was a significant risk involved, especially given your profession, you're a trained observer of human behaviour, so the chances of you recognising what she was doing were considerable. Sharon's decision to nevertheless proceed indicates that she believes the rewards far outweigh the risks"

"Do you?" I considered the question.

"I'm sorry but I cannot give you a definitive answer. On one hand, the relationship I am in is satisfying in ways I previously could not even begin to comprehend, but it is based on a deep love that existed before the start of the physical relationship. I don't think you have that same background with Sharon, or at least not yet, so I cannot give you a definitive answer" Her reply was quiet but full of emotion.

"So what do I do?"

"Are you prepared to enter a physical relationship with a beautiful woman, who obviously desires you, to risk that it may fail; to take the chance that it may be all you seek?" Her voice was strained.

"God help me, I don't know" I leaned forward, set my elbows on the table and rested my chin on my interlaced fingers. In the back of my mind I could hear my childhood tutor's voice telling me not to put my elbows on the table, but ignored it; more of Jane's influence.

"Brenda, I understand that it's a big step, especially when you have no prior experience with a woman as a lover. I had that experience, so taking the step into a physical relationship with Jane was an easy decision to make, the logical one" I paused, considering my words.

"You need to talk to someone who is coming from the same place you are, who faced the same challenges you now face"

"Who?"

"Either Natalie or Jane, I believe Anastasia had some experience before meeting Natalie. Natalie had to face an unknown in choosing to take the step into a lesbian relationship, even though she was the one to initiate it" I paused for a moment, considering Jane.

"Jane, like you, had not considered entering a relationship with a woman, she strongly self-identified as heterosexual; in part due to the societal pressure she faced as the youngest detective in the Boston Police Department, the first ever female detective in homicide and the only female homicide detective for years after that. As you can imagine in that environment, where she chose to not become involved with work colleagues, there were some questions about her sexuality which only reinforced her heterosexual normative identity" I shrugged.

"When you add the strong Catholic environment that she was raised in, the challenges for her to overcome to enter a relationship with a woman were very hard to surmount. I'm being honest when I state that if it hadn't been for her love for me, she may never have chosen to break through that barrier. On the other hand, as you are aware, Jane is a magnetic, charismatic individual and as we have since discovered, equally attractive to women as to men. There is a strong possibility that she may have entered into a relationship, or at least experimented with a woman at some point, even if I hadn't come along" I paused, as Brenda considered what I had said.

"Addison has met Jane and told me that if Jane hadn't been mine, she would have crawled naked over broken glass to seduce her, to have her. She also told me that if I was ever stupid enough to let her go, she had rights of first refusal." Brenda smiled gently at my attempted joke, though she may have just been polite.

"Brenda, I would have been foolish to pass up the opportunity to experiment, firstly with Addison and later with others. If I had not done so the chances of being as happy as I now am would have been significantly reduced as I would probably not have been as receptive to the possibility of an intimate relationship with Jane"

I sighed; saddened by what we might have missed out on, how much time together we wasted.

"We probably would have remained platonic close friends; eventually our refusal to face our growing love for each other, well, at best we would have been miserable, it may well have destroyed us"

Brenda nodded gently, looking out the window for almost a minute, processing everything, before coming back to me.

"Do they know?" I nodded once.

"Yes, we all realised what was happening during lunch" She looked down at her plate.

"Oh god" It came out as a whisper. I hesitated for a moment then pressed ahead.

"Brenda, you need to know, we may have been complicit in what Sharon was doing" Her head jerked up.

"Complicit; how?"

"We all recognised that Sharon was flirting with you, quite obviously she had determined that she wished to engage in a relationship with you. Equally obviously she wanted a serious relationship, she wouldn't have risked your friendship for anything less" Brenda nodded slowly, staring at me.

"And?"

"I believe we all gave our tacit approval to her actions" She looked appalled.

"Why? How?"

"Brenda, you are a lovely woman, someone who is intelligent, attractive, vivacious and desirable. But it's also equally obvious that you have submerged yourself in your work for the last year, if not longer, to the detriment of your work life balance" I waved around me to the café we were in.

"You've worked in the same building for several years but have almost no knowledge of the surrounding area, you admit you spend your lunches at your desk, you work late most nights, except the nights you meet up with Sharon after work, your squad worry about you" I held my hand up as she went to speak.

"They won't interfere, but they do have their concerns about you. You are very fortunate; your squad; your friends, are extremely loyal to you, that loyalty extends to your health and well-being" I could see she was processing that, so I pressed on.

"When we saw Sharon taking the first steps in what was obviously a plan to draw you into a relationship, we all individually made the decision to say nothing, however Sharon must have realised that we had recognised what she was doing" Brenda was silent, her face unreadable.

"Sharon looked at each of us during that lunch, when your attention was elsewhere, as if she was looking for support. We each indicated that support. When I spoke to Jane that evening, we both agreed that if Sharon proceeded, then we would say nothing and do what little we could to encourage and support it; because of the chance it gave you to be happy" Brenda's voice was quiet, I couldn't tell if she was angry or not.

"What gave you the right to make that choice?"

"Probably nothing. But each of us is happy Brenda; we saw the chance for you to be happy as well, so we chose to do nothing to stop Sharon and may have provided her with moral support and approval"

The silence reigned for more than a minute before I spoke again.

"Brenda, I apologise for my actions if they've caused you pain, the only mitigating factor I can offer is that our intentions were good and yes, I know what they say about the paving on the road to hell" Brenda slowly shook her head.

"I feel like I'm trapped here. Sharon's actions have changed my life and I feel like I have no control over this. That no matter what happens she's taken control of my actions"

"I disagree. You may feel that you have lost control but that is entirely inaccurate. You are the one being pursued, the desired party. When you had men pursue you in the past, did you feel like you had lost control in that situation?"

"Well no, but men are pretty straightforward, you can lead them where you want them to be. Let's be honest, when it comes to relationships they think first with their cock then with their heads" I laughed, happy to have an opportunity to try and break the tension which had grown around us.

"Brenda, I can assure you, scientific studies have conclusively proven that the male circulatory system can provide enough blood to supply both the brain and the penis at the same time, no matter what our personal, practical experience might suggest" It worked; she smiled at me, appreciating the attempt to lighten the mood.

"Women though, they're complex and I've no experience there"

"On the contrary, you have a lifetime's experience to draw on. You are a beautiful woman, used to being desired, confident in using those looks to influence the actions of those around you. Jane has relayed some of the more interesting stories the squad has passed on to her of your interviews, how you have walked into the interrogation room and controlled the outcome to achieve a conviction" I leaned forward, intruding just a fraction into her space.

"Are you telling me that after dealing with murderers, serial killers and the dregs of humanity, you cannot control the speed and course of a tentative relationship?" Brenda sat back, a look of surprise on her face.

"Of course not, I mean, that's different. That's work"

"And this isn't, but I understand why it's a challenge. You are excellent at your job, based on your experience and training, your track record speaks for itself. You believe however that you lack experience in dealing with what Sharon is doing. I am simply pointing out that with the lifetime's experience and expertise that you have developed dealing with people, you'll find that you will come to understand that this is not so different than what has gone before"

Brenda looked uncertain, so I pressed onwards.

"If you were being pursued by an attractive, older man, with whom you were friends, who was gently flirting with you and who you realised wanted to pursue you romantically, would we be having this discussion?" She looked at me for a moment.

"No, I don't believe we would"

"Neither do I, Sharon may be a woman, and that may be new for you, but attraction and desire are pretty universal"

"So what do I do now?"

"Talk to Natalie and Jane, they have a perspective that I do not, their experiences are different and may prove to be more relevant to you" She nodded slowly and then looked closely at me.

"Why did you agree to support Sharon?"

"You deserve to be happy Brenda. You should be happy. If it wasn't Sharon, but instead a male version of her, then we would have been similarly supportive. We are not cheering her on because of some lesbian recruitment drive…" Brenda's sudden smile was bright and sunny and very welcome. "We just want you to be happy and it seems Sharon is the best opportunity for you to be happy and loved that has emerged"

"It's all your fault you know" I looked at her in surprise.

"How so?"

"You and Jane, you make it all look so easy and wonderful and perfect, it's hard not to want that as well. Same with Natalie and Anastasia" I shrugged.

"We have had to overcome a regrettable number of dramas in our relationship. There were significant issues with some less than supportive work colleagues, plus Jane's Catholic upbringing, some of Jane's family has…issues" I winced inwardly at Jane's brother Tommy's reaction to the news; he hadn't taken it at all well. He had been interested in me and had not liked losing to Jane in my affections, even though it really was no contest. Tommy was attractive and charming however Jane was well... Jane. Putting that aside I resumed speaking.

"There were also issues with my parents; they had some strong opinions about whom and what I should marry, they weren't as supportive of my decision as I would have hoped" I frowned at some of the arguments I'd had with my father, in particular his declaration that Jane was 'beneath my station as an Isles'.

"They were some of the drivers behind my decision to look for relocation away from Boston, a chance to have some clear air to let our relationship grow, to be happy" Brenda nodded slowly.

"You certainly seem happy and while I wasn't aware of the issues that drove you to come to LA, I'm certainly glad you came" To my very considerable surprise Brenda reached out and laid a hand over mine. "In fact I'm very grateful you came, I consider myself very fortunate to have had the opportunity to be your friend" I felt my cheeks redden as I blushed and I looked down at my plate as I composed myself.

"Jane and I have really enjoyed being here; you, Sharon, Anastasia and Natalie, the members of Major Crimes, you've all been very kind and welcoming to us"

"Would you like to stay beyond the six months?" I looked up at Brenda in surprise.

"I hadn't really considered that, I am still expecting Doctor Morales to return. Have you heard anything to change that?"

"No, but as a Deputy Chief I have some level of influence on the LAPD, as does Sharon in her role. We'd both want you to stay, no matter what else happens" I looked back down, suddenly feeling very awkward.

"I couldn't ask you to do that Brenda, it would place you in a difficult position and neither Jane nor I would wish to do that" She laughed, forcing me to look at her.

"Maura, it certainly wouldn't be the first time and at least this this time it'd be for a good cause. And no this isn't some lesbian solidarity recruitment drive thing" I looked up shocked, to see her grinning at me. I felt the relief flow though me.

Despite everything, Brenda was still my friend. As Jane would say, 'we're good'. Thinking of Jane reminded me.

"I'd have to talk to Jane about it, but I would certainly like to, we've only been here a short time but it feels very right" She nodded slowly.

"Indeed it does Maura, indeed it does"


	48. Chapter 48

**Brenda quizzes Anastasia**

Brenda's viewpoint

I was sitting at my desk, thinking over everything that Maura had said at lunch yesterday. She'd certainly given me much to think about, including her advice to talk to the others about this.

I'd been watching Jane at her desk since she'd returned, wondering how to approach her. Jane's position as my direct subordinate was making it harder to talk to her; I'd have to find a way to engage her away from the office.

As I watched, Anastasia wandered in and made her way to Jane's desk, trading hello's with the rest of the squad. Since her arrival she had meshed into the team to the point that she was almost an honorary member of Major Crimes. Not that I could blame them, in addition to being very good at her job, her personality and looks made her welcome, even though her personal life was well known to everyone by now..

While Anastasia had some prior experience with relationships with a woman before Natalie, I still felt that her viewpoint was worth getting. I mean, she was a major contributor to Sharon's decision and apparently knew what was happening, so I had nothing to lose from chatting to her.

Coming to a decision, I stood up and wandered out into the squad room, asking her to come into my office when she was free. It was no surprise that she immediately followed me into my office; rank does have its privileges.

Asking her to have a seat I closed the door and pulled the blinds shut, remembering it was the first time I'd done that since the terrible days of Goldman's witch hunt. I turned to see Anastasia standing there with a questioning look on her face. I switched to Russian in a move to put her at ease.

"Kak dela?" *****

"Spasiba, horošo. A u vas?" ******

"Dobryj spasiba" ******* I smiled, before dropping back into English.

"Please, have a seat Anastasia" I directed her to one of the chairs, as I sat in the other.

"There's nothing wrong, but I would like to chat about something" She cocked her head at me and smiled.

"Sure Chief, how can I help?" I smiled, hopefully putting her at ease.

"I need some advice of a personal nature, and it was recommended that I seek out some people whose experience in this area might be useful" I watched as she considered my words, frowning slightly at the evasive manner in which I'd deliberately framed it.

"If there's anything I can help you with, please ask" I smiled as I anticipated the bomb I was about to drop in her lap.

"Why did you enter a relationship with Natalie?" She opened her mouth, then closed it, looking at me strangely.

"That's an interesting question Brenda"

"Yes it is"

"You were there last Sunday, you heard our story" I nodded slowly.

"That I did, I heard the how, but not the why" She settled herself back in the chair, looking at me, obviously wondering where this question had come from. Her grey eyes regarded me coolly, but I could see the mind behind them rapidly working, examining options, constructing theories, working everything out. I found it fascinating, seeing the investigator part of her mind work.

After about twenty seconds under her intense gaze, which was increasingly hard to meet, she nodded to herself once and leaned forward, her eyes softening.

"I wasn't initially looking for a relationship. I just wanted to be her friend. I liked her, her personality, her outlook on life; it made a nice change from mine at that point in time. I was in a not particularly nice place emotionally at that time and Natalie was a ray of sunshine in my life" I nodded and rested my chin on one hand while she continued.

"The more time I spent with Natalie, the more I came to like the person I saw. Yes, she's absolutely gorgeous, but it was the person inside I liked. She had a positive energy that I found myself really responding to"

Anastasia paused for a moment, obviously deciding on how far to go. I thought of saying something but decided to not push it, instead let her decide what she wanted to say.

I watched as she came to a decision, leaning back in the chair.

"Brenda, I was an army kid, my dad brought me up as he was posted from place to place. My mom had been killed in a car accident when I was seven, I don't think he ever got over it. He certainly never showed any interest in any other woman. He just concentrated on raising me as best he could" I nodded slowly.

"There really wasn't a lot of doubt that I was going to join the army, I mean dad never pushed me, but I grew up steeped in the army ethos, courage, honour, discipline, respect. It was just a natural course of action. I went to West Point, graduated in the upper third of my class; it was a proud day for me and a prouder one for him"

"I went into military investigations, basically I was an MP. I went to Afghanistan on my first tour, saw a lot of unpleasantness, but saw that we were trying to free a lot of people from a form of bondage; the Taliban kept women there like slaves. We were helping them be part of a better world" She shifted in her seat, trying to get comfortable at what were obviously unpleasant memories.

"Then, on my next tour, I went to Iraq. I was sure of what we were doing, that we were fighting to make the world a better place, bringing democracy to a nation that had been crushed under a madman. Then I was assigned to a special task force investigating some unpleasant stories coming out of a US run prison called Abu Ghraib" She looked up at me, her face a still mask.

"I was part of the initial US inquiry into what happened there and then got assigned to an international investigation team that dug down to find out the extent of what went on in that hell hole." I realised Ana was no longer with me, she was somewhere far away.

"In there, I saw the entire ethos I had instilled in me as I grew up, the tenets of the life I had chosen, all be ruthlessly violated. I saw people who claimed to be upholding democracy behave as badly as the people we were supposed to be liberating them from" She sighed softly, her eyes closed.

"The investigations team I was with was made up of people from a range of Coalition countries, we had Brits, Aussies, Poles, Latvians, Koreans, Germans, Canadians, lots of different nationalities, but we were all soldiers' first, military cops and lawyers second. We were all appalled by what went on in there, irrespective of nationality. It was a breakdown in military discipline that turned soldiers into sadists" Anastasia's eyes opened and she stared straight at me.

"It happened inside the army I was a part of and it shook my entire belief in what I was doing, the institution I was a part of. After the investigation finished I took leave and went home to talk to my dad. He found what had happened in there to be incomprehensible, a critical failure of unit discipline and of the army's esprit de corps" She sighed again, a soft sad sound.

"I ended up leaving the army; I'd lost a part of my soul in that place, interviewing soldiers who didn't understand that they were wrong, that they had perverted their oaths and become no better than the people they despised. Seeing their senior officers either staying silent or covering their own sorry asses by abandoning their subordinates"

"I can't say the army was sorry to see me go, I'd made more than a few enemies, very senior people who thought it was unpatriotic to prosecute the cases against the guilty to the full extent of the law, that they were 'only rag heads' and it didn't really matter what happened at Abu Ghraib. I saw the trials through, gave my evidence, saw the guilty prosecuted, or at least as many as we were able to get to and then left Iraq and the army"

"I wasn't sure what I was going to do, but I was advised to try the Bureau by someone who had been part of the Iraq investigations, a National Guard MP who was a Special Agent back in the US. He put in a recommendation for me and the Bureau ended up taking me on" Ana smiled softly at me.

"So by the time I got assigned to Seattle to be a junior agent I was a pretty messed up person. I buried myself in my work, worked hard to build a new life with the Bureau and then one day got called out to a kidnap/hostage situation, where I got to know an attractive reporter named Natalie Dearing and the rest is, as they say, history"

I sat there for a few seconds, processing everything she'd told me, trying to understand everything that had happened.

"Anastasia, I didn't mean to force you back to that place and I'm very sorry I did" She surprised me by smiling back at me.

"It's ok Brenda. I understand why you're asking and you deserve the truth. Anyway I was attracted to Nat because she had what I didn't, she was bright and sunny and happy and optimistic. She was like a bright light in the darkness and I was drawn to it, it filled a part of me that I used to have but which was empty now"

"I fell for someone who was everything that I wasn't anymore, I used to be like her and now I wasn't. I happily spent as much time with her as I could, even though I wondered what she saw in me to let me into her world. I certainly never imagined that we could be more than friends, let alone that we would ever be lovers" She smiled softly, obviously thinking of Natalie.

"I'd had a short lived relationship with another woman, the fabled 'college experimentation' thing. She was another cadet at West Point, we seemed to click, but it wasn't going to last, we were young, going in different directions and it wasn't really serious, or so I thought at the time"

"I'd had a few relationships after leaving West Point, I was in the army, surrounded by lots of young, fit, handsome guys" She shrugged. "It wasn't hard to find someone. Some were good, some bad, some exceptional" I couldn't stay silent.

"Exceptionally good?" She smiled.

"And bad. Too much the macho jock stereotypes; the combat arms tend to be filled with alpha male specimens. Not exactly the nurturing types, particularly when we were in a combat zone, Mostly it was a physical release. There were two who were special, but one went back to his wife, who he had neglected to tell me about. The other was killed by a roadside IED in Eastern Iraq" Ana looked away, turning her eyes to the desktop.

"I was in the final part of the Abu Ghraib inquiry, so you can imagine my mental state at the time" Ana paused for a minute, her eyes seeming to dim. "Not long after I heard that the girl from West Point, Kelsey, had died in Afghanistan, killed when her helicopter went down on a night operation. I was in Baghdad at the time, but only heard about it a month after it happened. I was in a bad state before I heard, I was pretty devastated afterwards, it seemed everyone I cared about was dying or gone"

"Bozei moi…" ******** I felt my chest clench, I had no idea of the pain this woman had gone through.

Anastasia looked at me closely, obviously seeing the sympathy and regret on my face.

"It's ok Brenda; it's now in the past. I'm telling you this so you have some context for Natalie"

"It may be in the past Anastasia, but it's not ok. I didn't mean to bring these memories back. I should let you go…"

"No!" I blinked at her certainty. She paused for a moment.

"I want you to know this because you need to know the state I was in, before Natalie healed me. I'm telling you this because I understand why you're asking and I think it's important that you understand what you have in front of you" I ducked my head for a moment, ashamed that I was tearing open old wounds, but grateful that she thought I was worth the pain. I had to ask though.

"Why"

"You have an opportunity to be happy Brenda. Sharon is a lovely person, doing a really shitty job. She's reaching out to you because she thinks you're worth it, something I agree with. But it's not just about you; Sharon deserves to be happy too" She tilted her head to one side for a moment, regarding me.

"Honestly, I think you could make her happy and I want you to understand the positives you could have. I'm sure you're full of misgivings, concerns, fears, whatever. I'm telling you that I was worse than you, but I was made whole by Natalie, the same way Sharon could make you whole and you could make her" I nodded slowly.

"Spasiba ******* **Anastasia, I really appreciate your candour and your honesty"

'S'ok, it's the least I can do" She shrugged. "Anyway, I was pretty fucked up by the time Natalie walked into my life. She was a bright light in my pretty dark life. Me; I thought she was impossibly beautiful, full of joy and kindness" Anastasia sighed.

"I know it sounds corny, but she was an angel of sunshine who brought light to my world. I wanted to have her in my life, to be her friend, to have her be mine. I really had no expectation that it would be anything more than that" She gave a short laugh, almost a snort.

"I know that might be hard to believe Brenda, I mean, she's beautiful, unbelievably gorgeous. Everyone wants her, men and women. But it wasn't just that I thought she was way too good for me, I really didn't think I was worthy of being loved" She shrugged again. "Like I said, I was a mess"

"So what changed you?" Anastasia looked at me quietly for a moment.

"She healed me, being her friend, taking an interest in me, talking to her; she opened me up and made me believe I could be the person I once was. We became friends; although what she saw in me back then I have no idea. I had fallen for her, not hard to see why, lots of people do" She smiled softly.

"I'd fallen in love with her, but always assumed that she was forever out of my league, that she was too good for me, and that I would be content with her friendship. Besides, she'd never even considered a relationship with a woman before, so why start one with me?"

"She must have seen something special in you" Anastasia smiled at my comment.

"You couldn't have convinced me that I was anything special back then. I was seriously fucked up."

"So what happened?"

"Well you heard our story, but it didn't really end there. It wasn't happily ever after; kiss and the credits roll stuff. I tried to explain to Natalie that I was damaged and she may not like what she found in me. Seriously, that only seemed to make Natalie more determined to make it happen. For the first few weeks, we just talked, spent hours on the couch talking, cuddling and kissing, as we explored our feelings and what we saw in each other" Looking at me, Ana spread her hands, palms up.

"I discovered that Natalie had her own insecurities, her own areas that needed my support. In particular, the fact that I had tried to tell her that she might not want me. No one had ever turned her down, all her experience had been being an object of lust, yet here was someone who desperately loved her warning her not to get involved, trying to stop her getting hurt. No one had ever cared enough to see beyond the package, to care about the person inside" She smiled.

"Then I came along, and the more she got to know me, really know me, the more she saw that I was trying to protect her. I'd stand between her and any harm, even if that harm came from me. Well, that was never going to happen, Natalie poured herself into me, filled me up with love and made me realise that I could be whole again, with her" I nodded slowly, considering her words.

"Brenda, Natalie and I are almost like two halves of the same brain. It sound's clichéd, but it's not. She's the emotional, creative, feeling half; I'm the clinical, rational and analytical half. She's constantly dragging me towards feeling more; I drag her into thinking before emoting. Not that she isn't rational, or acts without thinking, but she's so full of warmth and happiness and love that she can't help but reach out to people. You've seen it" She shrugged.

"How do you think we became friends with Maura and Jane so quickly? We knew no one here and Nat needs people in her life to love and cherish. Natalie felt they were good people and reached out to them, made them part of our lives and us a part of theirs. We went from strangers to dinner parties and shopping and nights out together in only a couple of weeks. It wasn't planned or anything, just Nat naturally reaching out to them, wrapping them in her love and pulling them into our lives, while dragging me along with her. Not that I was complaining" I nodded slowly.

"Yes, I remember her invitation to lunch, I never even considered saying no" She smiled.

"That's Nat, inside your defences without you even knowing it" I nodded.

"So you embarked on a relationship, was it hard for her, being with a woman?"

"No, not really; it wasn't about mind blowing sex, we just moved from taking and cuddling and kissing on the sofa to doing the same thing in bed. She didn't want to rush me; I was scared to push her, as that was all anyone else had ever wanted from her. When it happened, it was an emotional thing, not a sexual thing" She laughed happily, a welcome sound after the quietness that had enveloped the room during her story.

"Not that the sexual side wasn't amazing when we set our minds to it. Oh my god Brenda, I thought I knew about sex, but I'd never had sex mixed with love before, not like that. It wasn't about getting release, it was about wanting to give everything to the other person, to ensure that they were comforted and fulfilled and complete" She paused and looked at me, considering me through half lidded eyes.

"Brenda, I know what you're asking. Honestly, you and Sharon will work it out. You're both experienced, mature women, you both know your way around female anatomy and around your own minds. Don't fixate on the fact that you've never done it before, instead look at it as an opportunity to love and be loved. To be happy"

I sat there for a few moments thinking. Anastasia had opened herself up to me, shown me a part that I was sure very few people knew about. I owed it to her to be equally honest.

"Anastasia, I'm scared. Part of me wants it, part of me is terrified. I've messed up relationships before, made mistakes and ruined everything. I'm afraid I'll do it again"

"Which part's scared Brenda, the Chief Johnson part or the Brenda Leigh Johnson part?" I looked at her, considering how _knowing_ that question was, wondering if I was that transparent. She nodded slowly before continuing.

"As Chief you're in control, people either do as you want, or you convince them to, or you push them aside. Being with someone means giving up some of that control. Mind you, I don't think you have much choice. Sharon Raydor doesn't strike me as the type to back down from anything or anyone, not for something important" I smiled.

"I have some experience with that"

"So I've heard" It was said so drily I had to laugh. "Brenda, you are old enough to see past the labels that some people may assign to what you're doing. You want to be happy, Sharon wants to be happy and you have the chance to be happy together. I can attest that it beats the alternative hands down"

"Well, when you put it that way…"

"Brenda, when it comes to the sex part, if that's what worries you; don't. It's just two people both looking for happiness and pleasure and comfort and release and trying to make it great for the other person. Don't overthink it, just go with what feels right and the rest will come naturally" She laughed.

"Look at me, talking about feelings and emotions, you can see Natalie's good work right there" I smiled.

"Remind me to thank her for her good work then"

"I do, every single day. She healed me, made me a better person, made me love again" She smiled happily at me.

"Look, I don't care if you and Sharon hide it, or shout it from the rafters. Natalie and I will support whatever you choose to do, same with Maura and Jane. We're your friends, it's what we do. We don't judge, we accept, just try and make Sharon happy and be happy yourself"

"Spasiba ******* **Anastasia Katarina, I'm grateful for your help" She smiled warmly; it was so hard to rationalise the lovely, warm person in front of me with the dark, wounded spirit she had been.

"Udači ********** Brenda, but I don't think you need good luck. Sharon wants to love you; it's up to you to let her. After that well, just play it by ear, your instincts will guide you"

"I can't thank you enough Ana"

"Don't thank me Brenda, thank Sharon, she's the one offering to heal you"

**Translations**

***** How are you?

****** I'm fine, thank you. And you?

******* Good thank you

******** My God!

******* **Thank you

********** Good luck


	49. Chapter 49

**Following a hunch**

Jane's viewpoint

Something had been bothering me for a while, tickling at the back of my brain for the last two days. It was my cop instincts telling me I was missing something. I looked across the squad room, staring for the millionth time at the line of six photos across the murder wall.

I stood up and walked across to look at the photos and the names underneath them.

Marianella Chiarino, an actress;

Virginia Tennant, cable television personality;

Crystal Williams, a model;

Shannelle Henning, a dancer;

Iris Park AKA Tiffani Tang, a porn star; and finally

Kelly Connolly, a singer.

I prowled back and forwards along the line, trying to connect the dots, wondering what they had in common. I noticed that several of the guys were watching me pace.

"What're you thinking Rizzoli" It was Provenza, looking at me from where he had spun his chair to watch me.

"Damned if I know. Something ties all of these people together. There must be something"

"You mean besides all being dead?" It sounded callous but it wasn't, we all coped in different ways and Provenza had seen more than most in a very long career.

"Yeah"

"They're all women in their mid-twenties to early-thirties, in the entertainment industry" It was Tao.

"They're all hot" That was Sanchez; it figured.

"So our killer is targeting attractive female entertainers, doesn't mean they knew each other" Flynn was standing in the doorway working on a coffee. "For all we know they're chosen at random" I shook my head.

"No, from what Ana was saying, snipers are methodical types. All these women fit a pattern" As I paced I saw the Chief had wandered out and was leaning in the door of her office as I continued.

"It can't just be the fact that their good looking. It's LA, this place is full of them, it's practically the main industry here; hell, the place is full of plastic surgeons for a reason" There was a snicker of laughter.

"Besides, the sniper had to be waiting for our victims; they had to know where they lived and their phone numbers. They had to wait for them to show up and then stand still long enough to get a shot off" Gabriel nodded from where he had been sitting.

"Rizzoli's right, there has to be something we're not seeing that ties them together"

I heard the clicking of heels approaching and looked up, wondering if it would be Maura, Natalie, Ana or Sharon coming down the hall. Natalie came into view, smiling a little uncertainly as she suddenly realised we were all staring at her.

"Umm. Hello?" I smiled.

"Sorry, we're just thrashing out the victim's links" She smiled back.

"Sorry to interrupt, I was just on my way to chat to the Chief"

"It's ok" Seeing the line of faces she walked up to the board and wandered down the line, looking at each in turn, before turning to face me.

"What have you come up with?" I shrugged.

"Honestly, not much, we still can't seem to find anything that they might have in common"

She turned and waked back up the line, scrutinising each in turn.

"Well, they're all well groomed, attractive women right?' I nodded.

"That takes time and effort to look that good in the first place and stay looking good. Trust me, I speak from experience here. Try beauticians, day spa's, hairdressers, gyms, nail salons, those kinds of services. It's really the only thing that would tie them all together" She shrugged.

"Sorry, it's the best I can do" I nodded, having another close look at each of them. All of them were attractive, good looking, fit and toned, with nice hair and makeup, even their licence pictures looked better than most. Natalie was right, these people all needed to look good; it was part of their lives both professionally and personally.

"No, thanks Natalie, I think that helped" I turned to Tao, our resident computer expert.

"Can you pull up the victim's credit card details and see if you can match either similar amounts or similar vendor numbers?" He looked at me for a moment, before nodding.

"I can try"

"What are you looking for?" It was the Chief, who had moved to stand much closer while I had been busy staring at the murder board.

"Nat's right, all of them are professionally attractive. Look at their photos. How many people look that good for a licence photo, most don't, but they all did" Brenda walked up and looked closely at each image, before standing back, turning to look at Tao.

"It's definitely worth a look. Lieutenant Tao, if you could be so kind as to look for professional services our victim's had in common" He smiled as he peered over his glasses at the Chief.

"It's not a problem Chief, give me a few minutes to set up the search algorithms and we should have some answers"

We all stood around, making small talk for a few minutes as we waited, Natalie and Brenda discussed media requests for interviews with Brenda, which she flatly denied, and some potential additions to the current media strategy, trying to keep the media off our backs.

"Bingo!" It was Tao. "We got multiple hits" We all crowded round, as I wished we were back in Boston with that electronic video wall that Frost loved so much. I made a mental note to suggest it to the Chief later.

"Well don't keep us in suspense Lieutenant, what have you got for us"

"Well Chief; three of the victims went to the same hairdresser, in Beverly Hills; 'Snip Teaze' Two attended the same yoga place, Melrose Bikram , three went to the same gym; Aphrodite's Ladies Health Centre down near Rodeo Drive and two attended the same health and beauty spa, Castle's Day Spa in El Segundo"

"Why thank you Lieutenant, thank you very much" Smiling, she looked around the team.

"We'll split up and check them all. Lieutenant Flynn, would you and Detective Sanchez please check out the hairdresser, Sergeant Gabriel, would you and Detective Rizzoli be good enough to please have a chat to the yoga instructor. Lieutenant Tao, would you and Lieutenant Provenza please investigate the Day Spa"

I looked at the Chief a little curiously.

"Who's going to check the gym Chief?"

"I thought I might check it out myself" Gabriel raised an eyebrow at her,

You can't go without back up" Brenda smiled a very slow, wicked smile.

"I never intended to Detective. Natalie, are you doing anything at the moment or would you like to accompany me to the gym?"

Natalie looked around, a surprised look on her face for a moment, before she schooled it back into her usual calm expression, which I'd come to learn was her 'work face', the one she used in front of the media. She smiled the same calm, reassuring smile she used on camera.

"Sure Chief, I'm always up for some hands on experience"

"Well then, let's go everyone, times a wasting" She paused. "Oh and Jane, good work"


	50. Chapter 50

**A/N **The wonderful characters of 'The Closer' and 'Rizzoli and Isles' belong to their respective rights holders, no infringement is intended, but as always, thanks for letting us have our way with them, if only for a moment.

A quick thanks to Kyra Sedgwick, Mary McDonnell, Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander for the warmth and depth you bring to the portrayals of our favourite detectives.

**Natalie goes undercover**

Natalie's viewpoint

To say I was surprised was an understatement. I'd never accompanied an officer on an investigation before, so Brenda's invitation came out of nowhere and left me shocked.

I rationalised that she felt there was no risk involved, even though it was obvious that her squad was a little concerned that she was walking out without proper back up. Hell, I was concerned about the same thing.

As we walked down to her car, I looked across at her, where she was smiling happily.

"Ok Brenda, I'll bite; why me?" She looked across at me and her smile slowly widened.

"Oh, a couple of reasons Natalie, for one I doubt there will be any problems. This way we get to cover all of the potential leads without wasting time, which is important, as we're on the clock. It also mixes the squad up a bit, gets them working with different partners and avoids them getting too used to only working with the same person all the time. It also means Jane and David work together, which is good for both of them"

As we got into her car she smiled at me again.

"Besides, it gets you out and about, plus a bit of hands on police work" I looked at her with an 'oh really' expression. Her smile got even wider.

"Finally I'd like you to ring Anastasia and get her to join us there. I have complete confidence in her as our back up" I smiled in relief. Brenda had put me completely off balance, though I was struggling to not show it. I dug out my cell and arranged for Ana to meet us at Rodeo Drive.

We made small talk on the way to the gym and standing around as we waited for Ana to arrive. She finally got there a few minutes after we did and we quickly brought her up to speed on why we were here.

Aphrodite's Ladies Health Centre was a very nice looking gym, I made a mental note to check it out as I hadn't settled on a permanent gym here in LA and this one might be ok.

We wandered in and chatted to the receptionist, who upon being told that three police officers were here to see the manager, quickly conveyed us through into a glass walled office, probably where they signed up new members as it gave a good view over the gym.

I heard Brenda sigh, as she looked out over the women working out on the various exercise equipment. I went to speak but Ana beat me to it.

"You ok Brenda?" She looked around.

"Oh yes, I was just thinking this must be where the beautiful people come to stay that way"

I had to agree, there were a lot of good looking women there, especially the instructors; some of them had the sort of hard physique that comes from long hours of dedication to their body. It made sense though; an instructor's body was their best advertisement, holding out the promise that with commitment you too could look like them.

For all too many it was false advertising.

I heard Ana laugh behind me.

"Well, for someone with a serious chocolate addiction Brenda, you look very, very good"

"I should hope so. I spend enough hours in a gym working out" I turned to stare at her, seeing Ana do the same. I barely beat her to it.

"You, in a gym? I heard you can't stand them"

"Yeah, that you had some freaky metabolism that allowed you to stay looking like that"

She let out a happy laugh.

"Oh no, I have to work at it, I eat too much takeaway and chocolate to stay this way. I do have a fast metabolism, but if I didn't burn it off I wouldn't look like this I can assure you"

"How did you keep it secret?" I asked. Brenda shrugged.

"I'm vain enough to want to stay looking good. I have an absolute bitch of a personal trainer I go to three times a week, who beats me into the ground unmercifully. Beating her has been my primary motivation for the last two years. When I'm not having her humiliate me, I spend time in a quiet gym near my home two or three times a week" She looked back out over the glamorous surrounds of Aphrodite's. "It's nothing like this, but it's quiet and no one from work would ever go there, so I can keep it my little secret" She glanced back at us both.

"I'd like to keep it that way please" We both nodded.

"No problem Chief"

"Sure thing"

There was a knock at the office door as an attractive brunette in her late thirties dressed in branded gym clothes and a casual jacket stood looking at us uncertainly.

"Hi, I'm Kim Palmer; I'm the manager on duty today. How can I help you?" Brenda and Ana both flashed their badges at the newcomer.

"Deputy Chief Johnson of the LAPD, my associate Natalie Dearing and Special Agent Anastasia Romanov of the FBI; Ms Palmer we have some questions about several of your clients"

"Of course, whatever you need"

I understand that Marianella Chiarino, Shannelle Henning and Kelly Connolly were all clients of your establishment" She nodded.

"I remember Marianella Chiarino's name, but not the others, let me look them up" Palmer walked over to the desk and opened the computer up, typing in a password and then searching a database of names.

"I have a Connolly, Kelly and a Henning, Shannelle" She spelt it out. "Is that the spelling?"

"Yes it is"

"Yes, they're both members, though Ms Henning's not been in for a while, in fact..." She typed another name into the computer. "In fact neither Ms Chiarino or Ms Henning have been in for a couple of weeks" Brenda nodded.

"I see. Could you check several other names please?"

"Sure, what's this about?" Brenda smiled.

"We're conducting an investigation into their activities Ms Palmer. Could you look up Virginia Tennant, Crystal Williams, Crystal with a Y and Tiffani Tang, that last is Tiffani with two i's" For a while there was only the tapping of keys as she entered the names into the search fields.

"Hmm, nothing on the last two, but yes, I have Ms Tennant here. She was last in here more than a month ago" Brenda looked at Palmer with her head cocked to one side.

"How was Ms Tennant paying for her membership?"

"Oh, it seems she paid cash, paying three months in advance" I nodded, that made sense and explained why she didn't show up in Michael's search. Anastasia was staring at Palmer from one side.

"What do they have in common? Did they take classes together?" Ms Palmer frowned.

"Hmm, let me check, this might take a bit of time"

In fact it took more than an hour, as we cross checked printed sheets for each of the four women going back over the last year. Some of them had shared one or two classes, two or three had shared an instructor, but nothing seemed to connect all four of them. I sat back and thought about it for a moment, before an idea hit me.

"Kim, you had no hits for the two missing names, Tang and Williams, correct?"

"Yeah, sorry, nothing showed up" I nodded.

"Is that all members, or only members with active memberships?" I saw the same expression appear on both Brenda and Ana's faces. Anastasia nodded quickly.

"Nat's right, I fell off a membership database a few years ago because of some credit card stuff up and when I went to get back on, they couldn't find me on the register. Some databases drop you into a 'dead file' if you're not a current paid up member" I smiled.

"That's what made me think of it, I remembered that it took a couple of days to get it fixed"

"I was checking current members. Let's look at former members. What were those names again?" The Chief leaned in.

"Tiffani Tang and Crystal Williams" We waited, all leaning forward as she entered the names.

"Yes! Williams was a member but has been inactive for over a year, well, almost two in fact. If a membership's been inactive for over a year, it gets shifted to a different database. Sorry" Brenda smiled.

"No harm done. Could you please check another name for us?"

"Sure, which name?"

"Iris Park"

"Yep, here we go, she was last in three weeks ago. She also paid cash in advance.

Can we get a printout similar to these and printouts for the other women covering the same period that Ms Williams was a member? Let's see what they may have in common with the others"

Twenty minutes later we had our match. All had been clients of the same personal trainer; Charlotte 'Charlie' Weaver.

"Does Ms Weaver still work here" Brenda asked, as we looked at each other. It couldn't be that easy could it?

"No, she finished up here over two years ago. She had to go away with her other job" I couldn't help myself, I jumped in.

"Go where?"

"Iraq, she was sent to Iraq" All three of us exchanged glances, before Ana spoke in a studiously neutral voice.

"Didn't think there was much call for personal trainers in Iraq"

I was watching Ana and saw the tension in her face as she stared at Palmer from where she was standing behind her. I noticed Brenda step back; looking at Ana as well. Kim swivelled in her seat to look at them both.

"Oh no, she went with the army, she was in the National Guard"


	51. Chapter 51

**Putting it all together**

Brenda's viewpoint

It had been a busy 24 hours, we'd called the squad back into the office and assigned everyone to chasing down leads on our new suspect, Charlotte Weaver. I'd sat in my office as each bit of the puzzle came in, trying to fit it all together.

Anastasia had been a particular help, pulling in assistance from other FBI offices interstate and from the Federal Government to get us information. Finally, after a discussion with her lasting almost an hour, I'd sent everyone out for lunch with instructions to be back at 2 pm sharp for a meeting.

I called Pope's office and asked Belinda to have him here, as he had been catching flak from the Mayor's office on this case, as he'd explained to me, at considerable length, several times, so he deserved to hear what we had learned. I also requested Captain Collins from Tactical Response sit in, as he was probably going to have to deal with Weaver when we found her.

After a moment's reflection, I rang Sharon and asked her to be here too. I could think of a few reasons she should be there, but it was really because I wanted to have her here. It was the first time I would be near her since I had worked out what she was doing and I wanted to prove that I could deal with her presence, no matter what was happening outside of work.

That done, I walked out and headed to that macrobiotic café Maura had taken me to and enjoyed a delicious lunch, while I sat and thought my way through the upcoming presentation.

I wandered back in the door at a quarter of 2, to find most of the team was there, with the rest filing in in the next few minutes. As the clock reached 2, I stepped up and asked everyone to take a seat. The hum died down as everyone took their places.

I smiled inwardly as I saw Maura perch elegantly on Jane's desk with a smile to her partner. Pope stood rather imperiously in the middle of the room with his arms crossed while Collins leaned up against a filing cabinet.

A small man, Peter was easy to overlook, but he'd been a decorated Special Forces soldier before taking up a career in law enforcement, just as importantly his team would follow him into hell, because he wouldn't let any of his people go somewhere he wouldn't go first. I had to admire that. Sharon took up a spot next to him and they exchanged nods.

Natalie looked around for a moment, before smiling at Provenza and bending down to whisper something to him. The old charmer smiled and made a 'please do' gesture which saw her sit on his desk next to him and cross her legs neatly, with her hands resting casually in her lap. I saw a few askance looks from some of the others including Flynn and Gabriel; no one sat on Provenza's desk, no one. Looked like there was an exception now; the sly old dog.

Swallowing a smile I looked to Anastasia, who was standing off to one side, ready to add her parts to the briefing.

"Thank you for coming everyone. I realise it's short notice but we have some important information which we can finally bring together and share with you"

"A quick recap for everyone, but especially our visitors, Chief Pope, Commander Raydor and Captain Collins" I nodded at each of them and stepped up to the murder board.

"Major Crimes have been called to six shootings, each one taking place early on a Tuesday morning" I gestured to the six pictures and names on the murder board. "Each victim has been an attractive woman, in their twenties or thirties"

"The same MO, in each case the victim has been shot with a large calibre rifle, identified as a Barrett 50 calibre anti material rifle, more commonly used by the military for damaging an opponent's equipment but more than effective against a human target" I could see Collins nodding from where he stood.

"Each victim was shot from a significant distance, usually in excess of a mile in range, indicating someone with a high degree of skill, most likely acquired in the military"

"It also made finding the shooter problematic, from that distance there could be a multitude of firing places. Thanks to some excellent work by Doctor Isles, we were able to start narrowing down the shooters positions, making it possible to find their firing points" I shrugged. "Unfortunately, by the time we located their positions the shooter was long gone and we had found nothing beyond the firing location, no other physical evidence, no spent shells, nothing"

I looked around, seeing the squad shifting slightly, this was all old news to them, but our visitors were listening raptly. I pressed on.

"Once we ascertained the weapon being used, we conducted an extensive search of owners of a Barrett, plus checked all military trained snipers qualified on the Barrett in California. Both searches came up cold"

"We continued to search, however we were getting nowhere, when we had a break. Last Tuesday morning, when checking a potential firing point for our latest shooting, Lieutenant Flynn discovered a muddy boot print" I placed a photo of the print on the murder board with a magnet.

"Special Agent Romanov identified the print as coming from a US military desert combat boot" I nodded towards where Anastasia stood. "A female, size 6, left foot as it turned out"

"Thanks to some excellent work by Doctor Isles and the crime lab, they were able to ascertain that the wearer walked with a limp, favouring their left leg"

"So we had a likely female sniper, walking with a limp, with a grudge against attractive women" I shrugged. "It was a start but not much more"

"We were looking for some areas of crossover between our victims, when, thanks to an inspired guess by Ms Dearing, we started looking at the sort of services used by professionally attractive women" I nodded to where Michael was sitting. "Some good computer work by Lieutenant Tao narrowed it down to several establishments common to several of our victims"

"Aphrodite's Ladies Health Centre turned out to be the connection. All of our victims had been members there in the last four years and all had been advised by the same personal trainer, this woman. Charlotte Weaver" I placed an Oregon licence photo on the board, showing a very attractive dark haired woman.

"Ms Weaver had been a personal trainer at Aphrodite's up until just over two years ago. At which time she had departed as she was required to accompany her National Guard unit to Iraq. It turns out Ms Weaver was a member of an infantry unit and held a marksman's badge" I looked over to Natalie and nodded, as she stepped forward to continue the briefing.

"Thanks Chief, there were two reason Ms Weaver didn't turn up in our searches. The first was that she was not a trained sniper. She was assigned to provide support and protection to a combat engineering unit, who used the Barrett AMR as a weapon to detonate suspected Improvised Explosive Devices from a safe distance. It turns out that she did a lot of the shooting while in Iraq" Natalie shrugged. "It would be a waste to not use someone with her marksmanship for the job, so she was very familiar with the Barrett"

"The second reason she didn't show up was that her unit was part of the Oregon National Guard. She was an Oregon native and hadn't bothered transferring to the California National Guard when she relocated here about four years ago. She had always turned up for exercises and the like so no one questioned where she was actually living. Her address as far as the army's concerned is actually her parents place in Oregon" She nodded to me as I stepped up. I could see everyone was fascinated, hanging on our words. I saw Sharon smile encouragingly and nodded quickly back at her in thanks.

"So Charlotte Weaver left her job and headed off to Iraq with her unit. Unfortunately while there, Corporal Weaver was caught in a roadside bomb, which left her badly wounded. She was evacuated, first to Germany and then eventually to the US. Her injuries were pretty extensive, resulting in a lot of reconstructive surgery. The doctors did their best but they couldn't restore her to the way she'd been"

I placed another photo on the board, this time showing a woman with dark hair, but her features were twisted and distorted into a mockery of her original appearance" Stepping back I could see the winces as everyone saw the two photos side by side and realised the extent of her injuries. The wreckage was quite disturbing.

"Not visible here is the other major injuries, including the rebuilding of her left leg; it's now over two inches shorter than the right, resulting in a chronic limp" I could see nods as people realised the connection.

"Ms Weaver discharged herself from Walter Reed Army hospital about three months back and made her way to Oregon, however her parents have stated that her personality had undergone a radical change. She was no longer the person she had once been"

I stopped to take a quick drink of water, as my mouth was drying out.

"Weaver told her parents she was heading back to hospital; her parents hoped that it included psychological help as her personality was very depressed and dark. Unfortunately she did not return to hospital, instead making her way to Los Angeles. We tracked down her former boyfriend, who was contacted by Weaver by phone. They hadn't seen each other in over three years and the boyfriend, Patrick Sanderson, stated that she was pretty agitated when she called. He told her that he had moved on, it had been three years since they had split and they both needed to live their own lives"

"Needless to say, he was surprised when she accosted him in the street several days later. He was out with his fiancé, something Weaver didn't take well. She eventually left before police were called, but not without making some fairly unpleasant statements about being dumped for a pretty woman and how she would make them all pay"

I looked around at the room, many of the people in there knew some of the story, but only Anastasia and I knew all of it. Anastasia stepped forward again.

"Approximately two days later Weaver turned up at her old unit and announced she was happy to go back to work, that she couldn't find a job in her current condition" Natalie spread her hands in a 'what can they do' gesture. "Her unit wasn't going to turn her away, so they gave her work in administration. Two weeks later, she stated that she had been called back for additional treatment at Walter Reed Army Hospital and left, Needless to say, Walter Reed had not contacted Weaver and never saw her"

"When the FBI contacted her old unit, I got them to check their records of what she had been doing. It seems she had been responsible for getting worn out gear repaired or returned to stores. That included a Barrett AMR, which she marked as unserviceable and needing parts. She then placed it in the back of the armoury where it would sit until the parts, which were never ordered, arrived. When that gun case was checked, it was found to be full of padding and pipes, approximating the correct weight. Basically she had played the system and somehow got the weapon out, probably in small pieces each night"

I stepped forward again.

"Charlotte Weaver, while at Aphrodite's Ladies Health Centre, had access to their computer systems, which included the names and personal details of all their customers, including phone numbers and addresses. All of the victims were her clients, so she knew exactly what they looked like, and seems to have selected the most attractive of them" I looked around the room at all of them.

"It would appear that Weaver intended to kill as many of them as she could. All of the victims were her clients, even though some of them had since left the gym, which made it hard for us to pick up the connections there. We have the rest of her client list and will be relocating them into hotels next Monday, hopefully depriving Weaver of a target while we try and track her down"

"After this meeting we'll be issuing a BOLO to all California agencies for Weaver. Her appearance is such that we don't think she can go unnoticed for too long. We will also request a court order to freeze her bank accounts, cutting off her finances, which should help drive her out into the open" I took a deep breath. "Are there any questions?"

There was silence for about 20 seconds as everyone took it all in. Finally Andy spoke up.

"When Weaver finds she doesn't have a target, what do you think she'll do then?" I shrugged.

"Hopefully by the time she works out her next vic isn't home it'll be too late to go after someone else, buying us some more time to find her" Michael raised his hand.

"Lieutenant Tao?"

"You may want to move both the ex and his fiancé into a hotel, she might go after them" I smiled.

"Excellent idea, we'll do that"

"What's so special about Tuesday mornings?" It was Julio. Anastasia handled that one.

"The IED attack that destroyed her previous life happened at 2.47 on a Tuesday morning in Iraq"

I saw Peter Collins lever himself off the filing cabinet and nod at me. "Captain Collins?"

"While I appreciate the briefing Chief; why exactly am I here?" I looked at Anastasia.

"Agent Romanov?"

"Captain, I spoke with the clinical psychologist handling her case at Walter Reed, she stated that it is her view that Weaver is not going to allow herself to be arrested and that we should expect that she will go out shooting, trying to take as many people with her as possible. Secondly, it's my understanding that Weaver is experienced in the creation and emplacement of IEDs, so we must expect booby traps wherever she has holed up"

I nodded to Ana.

"Basically Captain, if we can find her, your team is the best ones to try and take her down. The reason Captain Raydor is here is so that she can understand the situation your men will be in and to be completely aware of the order I am going to give you"

"What order?" It was Will Pope; I'd actually been surprised that he'd stayed silent so long.

I looked at him and then back to Collins.

"Captain, your team is to not attempt to capture Charlotte Weaver, to do so would require you and your people to place themselves in a situation where the risk to your safety is too high" I paused, seeing Sharon's eyebrows lift and Pope's jaw drop. Collins just nodded slowly.

"Weaver is armed with a weapon that will blow straight through any body armour you may wear; it will even go straight through a tactical helmet. Our information is that at least 50 rounds of ammunition were missing from the National Guard armoury, so she won't be sparing the ammunition"

I could see everyone in the room considering the risks, Collins most of all. He nodded slowly, realising what I was going to say.

"If you get a chance Captain, shoot to kill, because she won't hesitate to do the same"


	52. Chapter 52

**Brenda reflects**

Brenda's viewpoint

I was sitting in my office after the Senior Officers meeting, which truth be told I'd been too preoccupied to be much of a participant in. I'd been sitting next to Sharon the whole time, still trying to come to some sort of terms with everything that was going on between us. We'd been polite, but quiet and of course she'd not done anything overt, not in front of everyone.

Our legs had accidentally brushed once as I stretched out under the table, but that had been the only contact and probably accidental, Sharon had made no move to touch me and I wasn't sure if I was relieved or disappointed.

Afterwards I'd made my apologies and left, making my way down to my office where I sat, staring out at the squad room, watching them come and go, brooding really, if I was being honest.

The boys had obviously worked out that I was in one of '_those moods'_ and gave me plenty of space, bless them.

I was finding my thoughts terribly conflicted.

On one hand I was terrified of what was happening, someone was trying to seduce me. Well not just any someone, it was Sharon, my best friend.

Part of me was afraid; I had no experience with this. The fear was as bad as it was the first time I'd had sex, with Tommy Seaton in the loft of his daddy's barn.

I'd been terrified then, consumed by the terrors of the unknown. I'd thought I'd put that particular fear behind me, I was a grown woman, experienced in both the ways of the world and the ways of men, I knew how to charm and tease and outsmart men to get what I want, to bend them to my will, have them under my control.

But this wasn't a man, this was Sharon, someone I really liked, my best friend, and all of my artifice and experience meant nothing, it was like my first time all over again.

I couldn't even put a name to my fears. Was it the sex part?

I knew how to make a man happy in bed; god knows I'd gone down on enough of them over the years. That was usually enough to satisfy most of them. Others had been kinkier, they'd wanted more.

Kurt in Bonn who liked to tie me to a bed and tease me for hours, except I hadn't liked giving control to someone who I didn't trust, that was too much of me to give away.

Daniel in London, who over a dirty weekend had introduced me to several kinks, most notably anal sex, it was good, I'd enjoyed it, not so much when he'd asked me to reciprocate with him, until I realised the power it gave me over him, to be the dominant partner feeling him bucking under my hands as I rode him.

Christopher in Washington who'd liked it when I dominated him, dressed in boots and leather and made him beg. I felt a nasty smile twist my mouth, remembering that little kink. I'd actually got off on it, having a powerful man under my control, responsive to my every whim or need.

A threesome in New York not long after I left the Agency, when I was still trying to get my head around what I'd done and why I'd left, I met two guys in a bar, got drunk with them and spent the night getting fucked in every hole, a night of pure filthy sex, until I snuck out of there while they slept in the early morning, not because the sex wasn't good, it was, but because I realised why I'd done it.

I'd let myself submit to them to punish myself for what I'd done, in that room in Dhahran, remembering where my soul had been irretrievably damaged. I'd become such a tool of the Agency that I'd not just lost my moral compass; I'd tossed it away, never missing it until it was too late.

I had fled that hotel room in New York, realising that I had to find another moral compass, because without it I was going to slide into a hell of my own making. That's what had led me to the police, it gave me a monochrome world to inhabit, criminals were black and I was the white knight, riding in to vanquish them.

I'd ridden more than that, as I climbed the ladder, I'd come to enjoy they perks of rank, the trappings of power, the ability to control others. That had bled into my personal life, I'd found that the only relationships I truly enjoyed were the ones where I was in control, I'd actually idly fantasised at being a dominatrix, controlling and dominating men, until I learned that it was truly the submissive who held the real power.

I'd eventually decided to settle down, try and raise a family, unfortunately I'd fucked that up, every guy I'd opened myself up to had tried to change me, to make me what they wanted, unwilling to see that I wasn't their ideal wife and was never going to be.

Three times I'd tried; once I'd been betrayed, twice I'd walked down the altar, never ever again.

Now I was faced with a totally different situation, one I'd no idea about and no experience of how to play this game.

I'd realised that in a relationship I had to be the one in control, I could only let that control go when I was with someone I trusted implicitly, someone who would trust me, let me be me and not try and change me.

I looked at Sharon and I saw someone entirely too much like me, I couldn't see her handing over her control in a job, a relationship or in bed. That's why we had fought so much when we first met, neither of us willing to hand over control to the other.

Eventually we'd managed to come to an unspoken agreement, we could share control, turn ourselves to controlling others, it had worked, rather than trying to dominate each other we dominated those around us.

But would that work if there was an 'us'? If I let Sharon draw me into a relationship, we'd be back into that whole control issue. I would have to trust Sharon, to share control, could she do that with me, let some of her control go; let me be in control as well?

That'd probably be as hard for her as it was for me.

How much did she trust me?

Did she trust me enough to let me be in charge at times, not just in bed, although that was often the hardest place, but in our daily lives, lived together?

Did she trust me enough to let me be the dominant one, not always, but enough to allow me to feel like I was in control of what we had?

Come to think of it, did I trust her enough to let go of that control? Enough so that she could feel like she was in control of some of our lives.

I could imagine the two of us fighting for dominance, in bed, in our relationship, in our lives, that wasn't a pleasant thought. I could probably win out with a man, I knew what buttons to push, make it worth their while to submit, little by little, until they did what I wanted. Sex was an effective lever, and I was good enough at it that they saw benefits in doing what I wanted.

With Sharon, it'd be different. She was the accomplished one, the experienced one. Obviously she'd been in previous situations with women; I couldn't believe she'd just decided out of the blue to engage in a lesbian relationship with me. No, there'd been previous relationships there, so she knew what buttons to push.

I sighed. I had no doubt that sex with Sharon Raydor would be more than satisfying. The damned woman was a perfectionist, she brought that to everything she did, be it her appearance, her investigations, her handwriting, how she filled out paperwork, everything.

I was sure she was just the same between the sheets, making sure she was doing everything perfectly. I'd be the inexperienced one, unsure of what to do, how to do it, all my carefully created artifice would be laid bare, Brenda Leigh Johnson, novice, vulnerable.

That scared the hell out of me.

How in god's name had we ended up in this mess?

Maybe we could come to some sort of agreement, I mean previously we'd fought over everything during our investigations together, from the interviews, to the pace of it, even the paperwork, until we'd finally come to an unspoken arrangement. I wondered if we could do something similar between us, god knows there was a lot more at stake here.

We were looking at a potential future, for both of us, I don't know about her, but I was tired of having relationships fail, of investing a part of myself into someone else, only to have them leave when I didn't change to meet their expectations.

I guessed Sharon had gone through something similar, I mean she was divorced, so it had ended badly at least once, and probably more than once. I couldn't imagine Sharon would really lack for attention, she was a lovely woman and she caught many eyes, including mine I suppose.

I couldn't conceive of her having remained single and celibate since her marriage died so she had logically had other relationships not work out either.

So now she wanted to try with me.

I sat there, thinking of what Maura and Anastasia had told me.

Intellectually I heard what they were saying, a relationship with someone was a positive, healthy, as Maura had oh so kindly pointed out on the walk back to the office, regular sex made for a much healthier person. She must be getting it often then, she glowed with health.

I couldn't blame Jane though, if I was gay and had Maura, I'd be doing her as often as possible.

'If I was gay…' I thought about that.

Well if I went with what seemed a consensus, that Sharon was who I should be with, well then I would be gay. Was that what I wanted?

I didn't really label people; gay people were like the rest of us. I'd seen them, mostly as victims, sometimes as suspects, in any number of crimes; they were just people, the same as anyone else, just subject to a bit more prejudice than most.

Everyone seemed to be cheering us on, that we would be good together, which opened a few cans of worms all by themselves.

I didn't know how to be good in bed with a woman, what to do to make them feel satisfied. Could I actually do this, let a woman have free access to my body?

I suppose I could lay back, close my eyes and lie to myself that it was just like a guy. That might work for a while, but sooner or later I would need to reciprocate, push Sharon back and kiss her, not like a friend, like a lover.

More than that, I'd need to work my way down, over her body, her neck, her breasts and her body and sooner or later, I'd have to push her legs apart and… well yes. That was the rub; could I do that, really?

It must have been hard for Jane and Natalie, the first time, but they'd been in love, you could do a lot of things you wouldn't normally do when you're in love. I wasn't in love with Sharon, I liked her, I respected her, I cared for her, but I wasn't in love with her.

Could I sleep with her? Of course I could, I'd done that before, plenty of times but that had been with anonymous guys. But this was different; this was someone who knew me. I couldn't fuck her and walk away, it wasn't anonymous sex, this was someone I worked with, drank coffee with, ate with and laughed at the world with.

There was nothing anonymous about this, nothing at all.

In a way, I'd be open and vulnerable; I'd have to be honest and tell her that I was scared, that I didn't know what I was doing and needed her help and support. God knows I was going to need it, if I was going to do this and more and more it looked like I was.

It looked like the stars were aligning, that everything was pushing me in a direction, towards Sharon Raydor, well Sharon and her bed.

I had to admit, that was a fucking big scary thought right there, lying in a bed naked with Sharon Raydor, kissing her, rolling around with her in bed, touching and being touched, licking and feeling and sliding across one another, hearing her come and feeling myself spasm around her fingers. Her fingers...inside me.

I'd need to accept that she would lead me, that she would understand that I wasn't experienced and go slowly, letting me become used to what she was doing, what we were doing together.

When I'd first thought about it, earlier this week, I'd told myself that I could be with Sharon, but now, thinking about the reality, I realised it was a lot more difficult than I thought.

I'd have to stand before her and admit not only to myself but to her that I was scared and needed to be led through what we were going to do, to give control to Sharon and let her take that control from me and use it to teach me to be with another woman.

All of that scared me, a lot. I sighed and shook my head sadly; this was harder than I thought. As I looked up I could see several of the boys outside surreptitiously watching me, wondering what was up, what was bothering me. If only they knew…

Would they be surprised? Certainly. Shocked? Possibly. Unhappy? Probably not, if it made me happy, it seems they wanted me to be happy, even if it was at the hands of Sharon Raydor.

Not that I would be racing out to tell anyone, not for a while at least. I had to find out if it would work with Sharon, if we could make it work together.

To be honest, I did want it too, if only to not be alone, to have someone to be there for me, to comfort me when the reality of what I did for a living got too much for me.

Sharon was offering to be that person, to be there for me.

I suddenly realised I had the answer to one of my questions right there. Sharon did trust me, enough to want me to be an intimate part of her life, to open herself to me, to be willing to let me inside the hidden life of Sharon Raydor.

I sighed; it was a massive risk, it was also a massive gift as well. One I couldn't really turn down.

I wondered what Sharon had expected when she made her move. Had she thought that I would be easily interested? Had she been willing to take her time, hoping to bring me round gently, so that I could get used to the idea?

She was willing to take a chance, to risk so much because she thought I was worth it. In its own way that was incredibly endearing, not to mention flattering, that someone who looked like Sharon wanted me when she could have so many others.

I wondered what she saw in me that attracted her to me. I was attractive; I could say that without any false modesty, I got enough looks as well to tell me that.

So she liked the outside, but she must also be willing to accept the other parts of me, the good and specially the bad that she knew about from our coffee's and shopping and catch ups when I'd been honest about what I'd done wrong.

I had to admit, in many ways Sharon knew more about me going into a relationship than either Dave or Fritz, especially the bad stuff. I'd been at my lowest ebb and Sharon had seen that. She'd seen all that and still wanted me. That was a little scary actually.

She had seen me a complete wreck, an emotional disaster and still thought enough of me to want me, not for a night but for the long term. I had to admit, that was nice, it made me feel special, appreciated and cherished.

I suddenly realised, Sharon would know that I was completely inexperienced, she knew that going in, while the subject hadn't come up, I was pretty sure that she knew that I was a complete novice at this and was willing to go slow to take her time, to be prepared to lead me and guide me and be gentle with me.

I bit my lip. I suddenly realised I had the answers to half of the things I'd been worried about, she must have wanted me badly, but felt I was worth it to go slow and gentle.

Sharon cared for me, she must care for me deeply, maybe even…loved me.

I sat there for a moment, taking that in. Could it be true, or was I projecting onto Sharon what I wanted, to be loved and cherished and appreciated?

Maybe if Sharon did, could love me, then she could handle me, my need to feel in some sort of control, enough so that I could let that go when she needed me to.

I sighed. My mind was banging from one extreme to the other, seeming to go round and round in circles too. I was speculating without enough information.

I thought about that for a moment and then decided I needed some distraction.

Maura and Anastasia had been well worth chatting to and with Jane still out of the office, I decided I might take a walk up to Natalie's office and see if she was in. A discussion with her would probably take my mind off what I was thinking about, even if only for a little while.

Given her personality, it'd probably be fun. God knows, I needed that right now.


	53. Chapter 53

**Brenda visits Natalie Part 1**

Brenda's viewpoint

I called Andy in and let him know I was going to be upstairs for an hour or so, but I'd have my cell with me if he needed me.

I could see the wheels turning in his head, upstairs normally meant Pope's office, he was probably wondering if that was why I was in a mood.

"Is there anything wrong Chief…" I smiled.

"Not at all Lieutenant, I'm just popping up to see Ms Dearing" At Natalie's name he smiled.

"Oh, Ok, no problem Chief"

Grabbing my cell phone, I strode out of the squad room, sure there were a few curious eyes on me.

As I arrived at the elevators, Jane Rizzoli walked out of one, startling me.

"Detective Rizzoli, do you have a moment?" Jane looked surprised, but nodded to Provenza, who wandered into the Murder Room, leaving Jane and I alone near the lifts.

"Jane, I wonder if you might be available to have a word later" I paused, that was too formal, especially given what I wanted to talk about. "I mean, would you be available to meet up later for a coffee, say after work, around five, if you don't mind"

Fortunately she gave me that huge Rizzoli smile.

"Sure Chief, its fine, I'll let Maura know I'll be home a bit late tonight"

With that we smiled and went our separate ways.

As I rode the lifts I looked back on the conversations I'd had with Maura and Anastasia. They'd both been… informative. Both of them had sought out someone who had meant something important to them.

Maura had been driven by her growing love for Jane, built up over several years working together. Based on previous comments both Jane and Maura had made, she had been a far cry from the charming, confident person I knew and admired when she and Jane had first met, Jane had brought her out of her shell and helped her blossom.

On the other hand Anastasia had sought out Natalie, seeking something she had lost and had, with Natalie's help and love, reclaimed her soul. I honestly still had trouble reconciling the lovely, happy and outgoing woman she was now, with the damaged and empty person she had been.

The consistent thread was that the other person had completed them, given them something that they desperately needed but lacked, in Maura's case love and acceptance, in Anastasia's case love and nurturing. The fact that the person offering it had been a woman apparently meant little compared to the love they freely offered.

I was trying not to read too much into it, as both had previous experience with women, something I most definitely had not. I wanted to get the perspective of Jane and Natalie, as they had come from the same position as me, straight women being pursued, after a fashion, by someone who was not.

Deep down I wondered if I had already made a decision and was simply seeking a justification for that decision, there was a very good chance of that, so why was I seeking more information?

I'd found the discussions with Ana and Maura to be intensely enthralling, they were both beautiful, strong, admirable women and I'd always found people watching fascinating.

The fact that they had both been so completely honest with me had only made it more compelling and I hoped that both Natalie and Jane would also be equally honest and open.

Stepping out on the corporate services floor, I looked around, wondering which way to go.. I'd very little reason to come here before and needed to ask for directions to Natalie's office.

I was surprised at how the woman I asked recognised me immediately and led me to Natalie's area, where she was busy chatting with a young Asian woman.

Natalie must have spotted me approaching as I saw her look up and smile at me, waving me in.

"Brenda, lovely to see you, this is a surprise, but a welcome one. This is Lilly, my incredibly organised assistant; I don't know how I'd get anything done without her, Lilly, this is Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson" Lilly smiled at me and stood, offering her hand.

"Ah yes, Major Crimes, lovely to meet you Chief" We shook hands and I took a seat, smiling.

"Please, finish what you were doing, I can wait. It was more a social call than work"

"Of course, won't be a minute" They continued their discussions, working on Natalie's schedule and forward calendar, as I took in her office.

It wasn't nearly as big as mine, but it was very neat, with the walls and shelves holding a few pieces of LAPD memorabilia. A framed image of the LAPD values on one wall, a framed list of all the fallen officers of the LAPD on another. An Air Support flight jacket with patches hung on a clothes stand, hanging next to her suit jacket, with a LAPD ball cap on another hook. There was a framed photo on her desk of Anastasia and Natalie standing with their arms around a London Bobbie police officer, all three laughing happily together.

An electronic photo frame on a bookshelf cycled through a long series of images, mostly candid shots taken as she went about her job.

Natalie standing in a group shot with pilots and techs from Air Support division around one of the LAPD choppers; with the divers of Harbour division; chatting with a group of media, with a group of people who must be the LAPD media team as I saw Lilly amongst them; standing in full SWAT gear with the assault team; with a group of techs gathered around the new police cruisers the LAPD were bringing into service; with the Mayor and his media team; shots with dozens of groups of officers from across the force; there was even one with Pope, standing with him in close consultation before a media conference.

It occurred to me that Natalie had met more people across the whole range of the LAPD in two months than I had met in years. It left me both surprised and quite frankly, a little embarrassed.

Coming back to the conversation, I realised they were discussing invitations to attend meetings, events, participate on boards, speak at conferences, advise on media strategies and many more 'get to know you' invitations. There was a drinks invite from the LA Fire Department's media team, lunch with a local TV news anchor, an invite to a gallery opening, a request to address a journalism course at UCLA, invitations from many of the LAPD division heads to visit their teams and many more.

I was surprised at how busy she actually was, having never really thought about it, I suppose I'd thought she sat around waiting for something to happen then turned up to distract the media, which on reflection was a bit silly.

Natalie accepted every invite she could, advising Lilly to flag those she couldn't so that she could ring them personally and apologise and discuss rescheduling.

It took a couple of minutes to work through, but I didn't mind, it was interesting to watch her work. Finally, they wrapped up, with Lilly taking her leave with a smile at both of us.

"Sorry about that Brenda, we normally run through the forward schedule at this time each week, otherwise it gets away from me"

"I had no idea you were in such demand Natalie" She shrugged.

"Some of it's because of the role, some of it's because I'm seen as having an in to the Chief's office, some of it is simply because once you accept one invitation and the word gets around that you're interested in what people do, then everyone wants to chat" She smiled and spread her hands, indicating the building and beyond.

"Honestly, I don't mind, I like dealing with people and you learn so much, not just about the LAPD, but how this city works. In some respects the non-LAPD invites are some of the most interesting, as you start hearing some of the gossip and who has the real power in the city" She leaned back in her chair, smiling at me.

"Anyway, you didn't come here to listen to me prattle on, how can I help?"

"I suppose you know what I'm here for?" She considered me for a moment.

"Ana mentioned that you'd spoken and you may be round to visit. When she left it at that I knew it was something I'd hear from you in due course"

"You weren't curious?"

"No, if I needed to know, she would have told me, as she didn't, I knew I'd hear it from you"

I paused, realising how much trust and understanding was contained in those couple of statements. Ana's words came back to me, '_two halves of the same brain_'. I nodded and tilted my head to one side.

"Why did you seek out a relationship with Anastasia?" She sat looking at me for a good fifteen seconds with a quizzical expression on her face, before she smiled at me, getting up and shutting the door to her office. As I watched she sat back and nodded at the door.

"For your privacy, not mine. Everyone out there knows about me but I'm sure you'd prefer a little discretion" I smiled in thanks.

"So, you're wondering how a nice straight girl from Wyoming ended up a raging lesbian and whether it's contagious"

'_Oh my god_' With a lot of effort I kept a straight face.

"Well… yes" Her smile seemed to stretch from ear to ear.

"I thought as much. How about I tell you it's because Ana makes me scream most nights and no, unfortunately it's not, otherwise we'd be throwing buckets of cold water over you and Sharon"

I couldn't help it; my face must have been as red as a beetroot. It took a few seconds before I was able to compose myself enough to reply.

"Thank you for that explanation, but that's a consequence, not a reason" She leaned back, a grin on her face.

"Ok Brenda, I'll explain, but don't blame me for any embarrassment that ensues. If you wanted prim and proper you should have asked Maura"

"I did, we had a long chat and she suggested I needed to get other people's perspectives, including yours"

"Hence the discussion with Ana"

"Yes"

"Have you spoken to Jane yet?" I shook my head.

"No not yet" Natalie nodded.

"Jane will probably be a bit more circumspect about it than I. I'm actually happy to be out, it shuts down a good half of the people who might hit on me, the rest learn that I belong to a FBI Special Agent and that scares them off. That's a good thing, by the way, as Ana shooting them would really kill the mood" I smiled to myself, two could play this game.

"We wouldn't want that, would we?" One eyebrow lifted as she regarded me.

"No we wouldn't. Being investigated by FID is a serious passion killer and I'm sure that's not the type of hands-on investigation you're looking forward to Sharon undertaking" I felt my face start to redden again.

"I thought we were discussing you?"

"I suppose we were, weren't we?" She smiled a tiny smile.

"You were telling me about you and Anastasia"

"I became friends with Anastasia because I thought she was an admirable person doing a difficult job well. You heard about how we first met, during that siege. Well seeing her reaction to what happened made me feel like she was a kindred spirit, so I rang her and asked to talk" Natalie shrugged and leaned back.

"I hadn't even thought about a relationship with her, just friendship. I wasn't gay; I'd never even considered it, after all Cheyenne Wyoming isn't necessarily the gay pride capital of the North West"

"So what happened to change that?"

"Anastasia happened. I found the person she was to be someone I really liked, she's giving and strong and vulnerable and protective" Natalie paused for a moment, as if wondering what to say.

"The more I saw of Ana the more I respected her. She was everything you could ask for in a friend and a confident. She was there when I needed her, but gave me space without question when I needed it. Loyal and supportive, but equally there to keep me grounded and pick me up when I fell. But as time went on I realised that she was the one giving, the one who would be there for me, but would never let me be there for her. It was only later that I understood she somehow didn't think she was worthy others time and energy" Natalie slowly shook her head.

"I couldn't understand her thinking, I respected the job she did, the commitment she put into making the world a safer place for everyone, the strength of character she possessed and the inner strength that had carried her through two war zones and some pretty horrible things. I also really, really liked the person I saw, the friend I had come to really trust and rely on" Natalie shrugged at me.

"To be honest Brenda, I didn't think I was worthy of her. She's a much stronger, much more honourable and more worthy person than I. I really wanted to be there for her, the way she was for me, but she was always the strong one. Never showing weakness, never one for giving less than her best at whatever she did; I wanted to be the friend for her that she was for me"

"What happened to make you want to move from friendship to lovers?"

"We were out clubbing and she saved me from an ex, it was a seriously terrifying incident. The guy who was pawing me was a line-backer, he weighed more than Ana and I combined, he was drunk, angry and wanted to make me pay for dumping him. There was no security anywhere in sight and he had half a dozen of his teammates there, all as big as he was. I was afraid I was going to be assaulted or raped" I nodded, remembering hearing the story at Jane and Maura's.

"Without hesitating Ana stepped in and saved me from him, when he didn't back down and went to hit her she left him smashed and bleeding on the ground, then stared down all of his friends. They actually got out of her way when she led me out of there" She looked straight at me.

"I didn't find out until later that night that she wasn't carrying a gun either. She stepped in unarmed and without backup to save me" She sighed. "Brenda, how could you not care for someone who put themselves on the line for a friend?"

"Anastasia obviously cared for you deeply"

"Yes, and it was reciprocated, I cared so much for her. As I told you last weekend, I came to realise that she was everything admirable in someone that I had been looking for"

"And you ended up in a relationship"

"Not that quickly, it wasn't fall into bed that night and fuck ourselves stupid, that came later" She winked at me, while I was sure she said some of this just to embarrass me. "Once we realised we cared for each other we started to talk, about everything. We used to sit on a sofa and chat for hours, well, kissing and chatting, lots of kissing" She grinned at me.

"We worked through a lot of issues, covered a lot of ground over a couple of weeks, between both of us. By the time we had moved from the sofa to the bed, we were a lot more comfortable with whom we were and what we meant to each other" She shrugged.

"When it came to the sex part, well Ana had some experience and I'd watched a few videos online to get the general idea. Still, I wasn't prepared for what happened. I'd had plenty of sex in my life, I get a lot of offers and I'd taken up enough of them, but that was sex, this was love" She smiled softly.

"It wasn't great, it wasn't amazing, it wasn't acrobatic, it wasn't anything like that, that's the physical. Making love to Ana simply blew my mind into tiny pieces. That the person I loved more than anything loved me the same way, that she wanted it to be perfect for me and I wanted it to be perfect for her. We didn't get any sleep that night, simply because making the other person happy and loved and totally complete meant more to us than getting off" I smiled, Natalie made it sound like bliss.

"Besides, we got to the paint-peeling, bed-breaking sex soon enough" I couldn't help it, I had to laugh.

You're incorrigible!" She smiled sweetly.

"I try"

"So it just grew from there"

"No"

"Oh?" I was confused; she'd just announced that she had fallen in love. "What went wrong?"

"Me. I didn't realise it but I had my own set of insecurities which undermined our relationship. To be honest, I really didn't think she would stick it out with me. Don't get me wrong, I loved her, but I thought she would tire of me, get bored and leave"

"Why for ever for?"

"Brenda, for the first 12 months, I kept wondering when she would leave, find that while the exterior was nice, the person inside was too superficial, too flighty to be worthy of the love she so freely gives. Basically I didn't think I was the sort of person who was good enough for her" "Natalie stared at the photo on her desk for a few seconds.

"I thought someone better, a more, I don't know, a more worthy person would enter her life and be the right match for her" She glanced up at me and indicated the room around us.

"She's the reason I'm here. When I heard about the job with the Seattle Police, I applied for it, partly because I wanted to be more like her, doing something more meaningful than being a talking head on the news" She shrugged again.

"I would have ended up being some bimbo news anchor, skilled in not fluffing my lines and looking good on camera, while she was out there putting her life on the line each day. That wouldn't have been the act of someone who was worthy of her, so I changed"

Natalie looked up at the list of dead officers on her wall, contemplating the names there for a moment.

"I wanted to do something that had more meaning, but I don't have a tenth of her bravery, to be honest, I'm a bit of a coward, violence scares me, I have the greatest admiration for you and Sharon and Jane and Anastasia for putting yourselves on the line, risking your life to protect others. I couldn't do that. So I tried to help in other ways"

"You do that, the media seem to be responding much better than when Taylor was making a mess of it" She grimaced.

"Why thank you Brenda, if I couldn't do a better job than that ass I should go back to chasing ambulances in Seattle. I think I'll be insulted now" I realised I'd spoken tactlessly; again.

"Sorry, I didn't mean it like that" She grinned at me as I realised she was teasing me. "And you know it!"

"Yes I do; and thank you. Anyway, I was suffering from some pretty poor self-esteem issues, I'd always attracted people who said they loved me, but who really just wanted to have me. Ana wasn't like that, she actually felt she wasn't worthy of me, and that she had to protect me from the unpleasantness that some of her life had dumped on her. She actually wanted to keep me safe from her" Natalie slowly shook her head.

"Ana wanted to protect me from her, from her life and whatever pain it might bring me, I'd never encountered someone who was willing to deny the love she obviously felt for me, to cause herself pain and anguish, to protect me and keep me safe"

"I couldn't let her do that to herself. I'd be a pretty miserable friend, let alone lover, if I let that happen. So I simply refused to let her do that, I forced her to open up and let me in and when she did I learnt something truly scary" I looked at her, as she lost herself in the picture of them in London, obviously deep in thought. I waited until she came back to me.

"Brenda, Anastasia loves me, completely and wholeheartedly, she truly loves me, not the shell everyone else sees, but the person I am inside, with my own insecurities and despite my flaws and failures and fears"

"I didn't truly understand how deep her commitment to me was, until she took me to meet her father. Her father meant everything to her; he'd raised her alone since she was seven. I knew she was terrified that he wouldn't accept me or that his daughter was a lesbian; that the thought of disappointing him scared her"

I nodded, understanding the fears a child has for disappointing her parents.

"But she also told me that if he couldn't accept me, then her life was with me, not him. If he didn't want her to be happy with me, then she would turn and walk away"

"How did he take it?"

"He looked at us both, where we were sitting on the couch side by side, holding hands, scared stiff after telling him. He asked Ana to go outside and come back in a while because he had some things he had to ask me. She didn't like it but she went"

"Was he angry?" She shook her head.

"No, he was very calm actually. He asked me if I loved his daughter, if I would protect her and cherish her and love her till we died. I told him I would and would spend every day trying to be worthy of her love. We talked for a while as he asked me about my parents and whether they accepted Ana, how we saw our life growing together, our future, children, old age, a lot of things" She smiled.

"Then he finally called Anastasia in from where she was waiting and told her that he was very happy that she had brought home his other daughter, his dochka" ***** I could see some tears forming in her eyes as she spoke.

"He also told her that she had good taste; that we would have many strong, beautiful children who would grow up surrounded by love and happiness and he looked forward to bouncing those wonderful grandchildren on his knee and telling them how lucky they were to have two beautiful mothers to make sure they never lacked for anything" Natalie opened a draw and pulled a tissue out, wiping at her eyes.

I was quiet as she dried her tears, though I didn't understand why, I realised that something had happened which had affected her deeply.

"Sorry about that Brenda. It's just that he died less than six months later, he had a massive stroke that almost killed him. We flew there as soon as we were called; got there in time to say goodbye, it was as if he held on long enough for us to be there, then he let go. It left Ana pretty devastated, she has no other family; all she has is me now"

I realised now why it had hit her so hard. The loss of her father must have been another bitter blow to Anastasia, coming not long after they had found each other; it must have been hard on both of them, especially given all the other people Ana had lost.

'I'm so sorry Natalie, I didn't mean to dredge up bad memories" She smiled sadly at me.

"It's alright Brenda. It was very hard, especially on Ana. After the funeral, we sold her father's farm and we both took some time off and travelled to Europe. She wanted to share some of the things she had experienced there with her father, so we visited England, Germany and Italy, plus we spent a week in Paris"

"Did it help?" She nodded.

"A lot, we needed to get away and just be together, far from the stress of work and being what everyone else expected us to be. It was important we go away for a while" I nodded; sometimes the anonymity of travelling gives you a chance to reflect.

"It was on that trip that I realised that Ana and I were destined to be together for the rest of our lives. She kind of fell apart a bit and I had to be the strong one for her, the first time she had let herself rely on me. I also realised just how much Ana loved and cherished me, to let me be there for her when she needed it"

"It was on that trip I also realised that we needed each other, we each made the other person whole. Life without her wasn't worth living and Ana felt the same way" She glanced at the watch on her wrist and smiled.

"C'mon Brenda, this's got a little heavy, so let's go grab a coffee and I'll tell you what you should be doing to Sharon" I frowned.

"Don't you mean doing WITH Sharon?" Standing up she favoured me with a wickedly evil grin.

"I know exactly what I said. C'mon, I'm buying"

Translation

***** Daughter


	54. Chapter 54

**Brenda visits Natalie Part 2**

Natalie's viewpoint

I was so glad that Brenda had come to see me; I really thought she and Sharon had a great opportunity to make each other happy. Besides, they would make a beautiful couple, both lovely, striking women who did very difficult jobs better than most, being together would make them both much happier.

We strolled out of LAPD headquarters building and I steered her towards a coffee shop that Ana and I had used when we wanted to catch up during the day in some privacy. I led Brenda into a rear booth where we were not easily seen from the street and got her to sit down.

Ordering a hot chocolate for her and a coffee for me, we settled back and I gave her a moment to relax. The next discussion was probably going to be a bit confronting to her, even though I would try and cloak it in humour, but I wanted her to be prepared for what she was going to be doing.

Finally she looked up at me with a quizzical expression, so I leapt in.

"So, have you decided to embrace your inner lesbian or are you still making up your mind?" She blushed beautifully.

"Ah, well, the latter, I think"

"Brenda, you're a beautiful woman, so is Sharon, you could do a lot worse" Her mouth twisted.

"I have" I smiled reassuringly.

"We all have Brenda. Now you have the chance to shop the other side of the street and see if it's better" I shrugged. "Not that I'm an objective observer by any means, I can't see myself ever going back to a guy after being with Ana"

"Why? Did you have bad experiences with guys before?"

"No, some of them were great, some were less so, but that happens in everything. Brenda, I was once a happy little girl, being chased by the guys, picking the ones I wanted; now I'm a one-woman woman. Even if I didn't have Ana I'd not go back to guys, Ana has completely ruined me" I smiled at her, testing the waters on how open she really was to what she was contemplating with my next statement.

"If I was somehow single and we were having this discussion, I'd be seriously looking to steal you away from Sharon and get you between the sheets myself" She looked shocked.

"What? Me?" I nodded.

"Yes you. You're very attractive, you look great in a suit and I'd bet you'd look even better in nothing at all, but that's not the reason I'd want you" She was blushing now, which was a good sign, she hadn't got offended.

"Then what is?"

"I find your accent to be very, very sexy, I'm sure you could make a nice living as a phone sex operator with that voice dripping down a phone, hell, I'd pay money to hear you talk dirty" She smiled shyly at my words.

"I don't think I'd be any good at that Natalie" I winked at her.

"I'm not so sure Brenda; give me a call if you want to practice" If anything she blushed even deeper. I decided to have a little mercy.

"Seriously Brenda, that's not the sexiest part of you. While the exterior is very nice I'd want you for your brain, you're very smart and I find intelligence to be the sexiest thing about a person. Mind you it helps if the brains are wrapped in a nice package, which it most definitely is in your case" Brenda looked down at the table, toying with a napkin.

"Thank you, you're being very nice" I snorted.

"Bullshit Brenda, I'm not being very nice, I'm being very honest" She looked up in surprise. "I see the looks you get as you walk down the corridor, how you swing those hips of yours, stalking into a room or dominating a meeting, the calculated tossing of the hair and the charm you switch on when you need it, you know exactly what you have to work with and in your own way you're as much a seductress as I am"

"Well… I just try and make the most of what I have, trying to make it in a very male-dominated environment"

"Exactly, look Brenda; I don't begrudge you making everything you have work for you. I'm blessed with good looks and I work it hard to make sure I get what I want here at work. I've seen you watching me in the Thursday morning meetings. No doubt you've noticed I sit with different people each week"

"Yes, I had noticed that, Sharon and I both did" I smiled.

"See, you're both smart, you two will be a very good fit. Anyway, I do that because I have very little real power in the LAPD, nothing like you and Sharon for example. What I do have is my looks and charm, which I work the hell out of" I smiled as our drinks arrived.

"That's why I went to see Air Support Division. I got the invitation from Captain Oats and was happy to follow up, mind you while the invitation came from him, I did appreciate the chance to learn about what they do, same with Commander Washington from Traffic. They both invited me after the first meeting and I was happy to accept" I paused to take a sip from the coffee.

"It means I get a chance to make them more friendly and receptive to me, to build up allies in case I ever need them. And one day I will; that ass Taylor keeps pushing and sooner or later we are going to have to have it out. When that happens, I want as many people backing me as I can" I shrugged. "It's not just the looks and charm thing, I also work damned hard to service as many requests for help as I can, so that people remember me for more than tits and ass, they also remember that I helped them when they needed it, something that Taylor didn't"

"You know you can always count on Sharon and me for support Natalie" I smiled.

"Thank you Brenda, I appreciate that, but if push comes to shove, I don't want it coming down to my friends, I want to make it very clear to everyone that I have the support of the majority of the senior officers and departments in the LAPD"

"Do you think Taylor will push it that far?"

"Probably, I don't care either way, the balls in his court. If he does, well, I'm ready for it. If he really wants to make it a fight I'll have his badge and his job" I shrugged. "I've seen it coming from day one, so I've been working towards dealing with him, whatever it takes" Brenda looked shocked.

"How could you have his job? Taylor's got friends in the union, he's safe as houses"

"He's also made a lot of enemies, many of whom would only need a good reason to help see him gone. Anyway, this is supposed to be about you, well you and Sharon" She nodded slowly, obviously uncertain about Taylor but willing to let it drop.

"What I'm saying is that I'm also aware that you're a beautiful woman who's well and truly capable of using your looks to get what you want as well. It's an essential female skill in a male-dominated workplace and you do it very well." Brenda just looked at me. I tried another tack.

"Brenda, you're obviously willing to contemplate an intimate relationship with Sharon Raydor or we wouldn't be having this conversation, correct"

"Well, yes, I s'pose I am"

"There's no suppose about it Brenda, you've chatted to other people about it, so you must be contemplating it. What attracts you to her" She sighed, then took another sip of her hot chocolate, obviously stalling. I just waited for her to continue.

"Well, she's smart and strong, she's caring, she's been a good friend, I trust her and I care for her"

"That's a good start Brenda. I take it you had never contemplated a relationship with a woman before Sharon?" She looked at me, her eyes wide.

"Oh heavens no, I'd never really thought about it, until I was forced into it because I realised Sharon was interested"

"Why were you willing to open yourself up to it then, if you'd never contemplated it before?"

"I'd never really been approached by a woman, so the option had never been there before" She paused, staring gently at me with a contemplative look. "I suppose seeing you and Ana and Jane and Maura together, seeing you all happy, made it a less scary proposition" Brenda looked down at the table for a moment.

"I guess I was lonely and the thought of not being alone made it seem attractive as well"

"It's not a bad reason Brenda, loneliness is hard, for everyone. We weren't made to be alone"

"I have been alone Natalie, for the last year, but for a long time before that I suppose. I wasn't really honest with myself. I want to be with someone who understands who I am, that what I do is who I am. Not being something I'm not" I nodded.

"So what do you want from Sharon?" She looked past me for a moment.

"I want to be happy, to care for her and to have Sharon care for me, to make her happy and to have someone to… I don't know"

"Love? Do you love Sharon?" Brenda looked down into her cup.

"I don't know. I like her, care for her, she's a good friend, but I'm not sure I love her"

"Ok, I can handle that, it's been a quick step from being friends to contemplating sleeping together" I smiled to take the sting out of what I was going to say next.

"My personal thought is that it's likely to happen, once you stop being Chief Johnson and Commander Raydor who are friends at work and start being Brenda and Sharon who fuck each other most nights. Sex is great for building close bonds" She blushed a little at my choice of words.

"When you put it like that…"

"Hey, a lot of great relationships have started with a lot less, look at most pick up joints on any Saturday night" I grinned at her. "At least you and Sharon knew and liked each other before you start sleeping together, so you're both well ahead of the game"

"Well we haven't got there yet"

"You will, sooner than you think"

"What makes you say that"? I held up my right hand and counted the answers off on each finger.

"One, you're already receptive to the idea. Two, you already have a strong relationship with Sharon. Three, you're both alone and life together will be a lot easier on you both, burdens shared are burdens halved after all' Brenda nodded slowly.

"Four, you're both attractive and intelligent women and have an attraction to one another" I smiled at her.

"And fifth and finally, given both of you have been celibate for over a year in your case and probably longer in Sharon's, once the sex starts, neither of you will want to stop" Brenda looked at me for a moment then grinned at me.

"There is that"

"Look Brenda, you must be contemplating it, that's why we're here now, having this discussion, so you should stop kidding yourself. You are seriously considering allowing yourself to be drawn into a relationship with Sharon" She looked at me for a moment finally sighing.

"Yes I am" I laughed.

"God Brenda, don't look at it like it's a bad thing. I think you're very lucky" She looked at me with an annoyed expression.

"Why? Why are you so sure it's a good thing?"

"Because of the good things it will bring" I took a sip at my coffee before continuing, laying out what she could look forward to having.

"Things like waking up, feeling Sharon spooned up against you, her arm across your body holding you tight to her, her breath warm on your neck, listening to the rain outside as you drift off back to sleep, secure in the knowledge that she will be there for you" Brenda's head canted to one side for a moment, listening to me. I took it as a good sign and ploughed on.

"Sitting out on the deck at Maura's place, together as a couple, arms around each other, feeling the sun on your back, warming you as you relax, your head on her shoulder and her head resting on yours" I smiled, as the first ghost of a small soft smile appeared on Brenda's face.

"Out at dinner with good food and better wine, sitting close, touching and teasing, laughing at the jokes, happy to be together and enjoying the night with each other and your friends" Seeing the smile grow I continued.

"Sitting together, side by side, watching the sun go down at the end of a long summers day, each holding a glass of wine and Sharon's fingers entwined with yours, not having to say anything because just sharing the moment makes it special"

"After a bad day, sitting on the floor, nursing a glass of merlot, while strong fingers massage the stress out of your neck and shoulders, relaxing into Sharon's touch as she kisses the top of your head" Brenda smiled at me.

"You're very good at this Natalie" I smiled '_damn right I am'_.

"It's what I do"

"You make it sound lovely" I mentally took a deep breath, as I decided to jump in.

"It can be more than that" Brenda frowned at me.

"What do you mean?"

"It could be the other side of it. Feeling her teeth on your neck, her tongue on your clit, her fingers deep inside you, your hot sweating bodies sliding over one another across cool sheets as you have sex, her hands in your hair as you kiss her, taste her, finger her, eat her and fuck her" Brenda's eyes flew wide and her mouth fell open, before she frantically looked around.

"My god Natalie, keep your voice down!" she whispered. I smiled gently at her discomfort.

"Like I said Brenda, any embarrassment is yours. Hell, I'm actually quite jealous of you and Sharon" She frowned at me for a moment, before sitting back.

"Oh for heaven's sake, why would you be jealous, you have Anastasia? She's beautiful"

"Brenda, you're actually incredibly lucky to have Sharon as your first, just as Sharon is very, very lucky to be your teacher. You both have so much to learn about each other, together, hell I'd love to be there to watch it" She smirked.

"I can assure you that you won't be, if it happens"

"Brenda, can you honestly sit there and tell me that you're not looking forward to it, not even a little" Brenda sat there, fidgeting, for a good 30 seconds, before shaking her head at me.

"It's going to be fun Brenda, learning what turns each other on, exactly how to make Sharon scream your name, what she needs to do to leave you a trembling, shattered mess after your third orgasm in a row, the exploration, the discovery is so much fun together" Brenda was silent for a few seconds.

"Natalie, I'm worried, well actually I'm scared. This… thing with Sharon is moving so fast, I'm not sure where it's leading" I smiled softly at her, as I laid my hand on hers.

"I could say it's going to end in the pair of you naked in bed, incredibly glad you ended up there, but that's not where you are right now" I took a breath, given where this was going.

"Honestly Brenda, your life wasn't exactly wonderful before Sharon decided to flirt with you. You fit the classic description of a miserable workaholic, all your friends are your colleagues and you go home each night to a cold house and an empty bed. That's not the definition of a healthy, fulfilling life" I held my hand up as she went to speak.

"Hear me out Brenda. If Sharon hadn't taken the incredibly brave decision to try and pursue a relationship with you, instead of sitting here with me, discussing sex positions and techniques and the contents of a lesbian's tool box, you'd be sitting there talking about cases and office politics and bemoaning your lack of a love life" She sat there looking at me.

"Now tell me which of those alternatives is the one you really want?"

Brenda sat there for more than a minute, twisting her glass round and round on its saucer, staring into the dregs at the bottom, before sighing softly. Still I waited; I had the time to outwait her, until she finally looked up. Seeing me looking at her, she looked down again and fidgeted a bit more before nodding slowly.

"If I'm going to be completely honest, you're right, being with Sharon is a much better alternative than where my life was going" I smiled as she peered up at me.

"Brenda, if you don't try, you won't find out if you're right for each other, although that's actually one of the least of my worries about you"

"The least of your worries, what do you mean?

"I personally think you and Sharon will be a sensational pair. To be honest, I really think neither of you'll ever need to look for someone else again, because I'm pretty sure that you'll both be everything you need in a relationship" Brenda shook her head,

"How can you be so sure Natalie, you don't really know either Sharon or I" I smiled to myself, even someone as smart as Brenda underestimates me, she should know better.

"More than you might think actually, I have my sources. What I've seen make me believe you're both wonderful people, who deserve a break. I believe you can make each other happy, at the end of the day that's all any of us are looking for" She frowned.

"You said that's the least of my worries, why?"

"I'm afraid that you're going to have some more difficult obstacles to climb before you're really happy. Getting over the awkwardness of sleeping with a work colleague, tempering your natural desire to be affectionate with the need to be discrete, particularly if you don't want to be out at work, dealing with the comments behind your back, the nasty insinuations and outright crassness of some people, it's not all plain sailing"

"How did you deal with it?"

"Once we decided to be open, well we made it quite clear we were together, that we didn't care who said what and that if they persisted, well the pair of us together could make someone's life very unpleasant if we had to"

"Did it work?"

"We got one particularly homophobic lieutenant reassigned to cataloguing evidence in records after Ana filed a harassment complaint and I made sure that local media heard about it and jumped on the case, the Seattle PD had no real choice but to act publically. Everyone else backed off after that"

"I see, well I'd hope that we wouldn't see too much of that here"

"You will see some of it; on the other hand you're the LAPDs two most senior female officers, Sharon Raydor is feared throughout the force and you have a reputation for doing whatever it takes to close a case, that's a pretty scary combination. The only people who are really likely to make an issue of it are people who don't fear your rank"

"You're talking Taylor and Pope" I nodded; Brenda was really quick on the uptake, but that was only to be expected.

"Pope has a past history with you Brenda, he'll take you and Sharon in a relationship personally, but he'll get over it, it's not like he has any choice. Taylor on the other hand simply hates you. I don't know the full story, but he'll take any chance he can to hurt you and Sharon" Brenda nodded.

"He was slated to be promoted over all of us, with Will Pope to be transferred to a subordinate position, by the previous Chief. He was a bit obvious about his satisfaction and how he would settle old scores after his promotion. When Pope ended up as Chief instead, he didn't take it well" I nodded, I'd heard as much on the LAPD's gossip channels.

"Why you though Brenda?"

"I was pretty sure he was feeding information to a lawyer named Goldman, who was trying to get me convicted of misconduct and thrown off the force or sent to jail. Someone in the squad was feeding info to Goldman and between us Sharon and I had managed to work out it was likely Taylor" Sighing, Brenda continued.

"He wanted to head Major Crimes as it's seen as more prestigious than Robbery Homicide and if I was forced out, he was the most likely person to take over" Brenda shook her head.

"Instead we think Goldman was killed by a hit man in retaliation for getting messed up in a major crime bosses affairs. That led to the mobsters arrest by the FBI for arranging a murder and got him sent away for life. Goldman was found dead two weeks later" She looked up at me, smiling.

"I went to Pope and demanded Taylor be moved out of Major Crimes, so he was sent to take over Robbery Homicide as Commander De Francesco was retiring. He didn't take it well" I nodded, thinking it over.

"Brenda, if you decide to come out, Taylor will try and use it against you. Personally, I think he'll fail, you're both smarter than him, but that's a decision you'll have to make together, after all you and Sharon will have a relationship to protect" She sighed again.

"You're awful sure that I'm going to end up in a relationship with Sharon" I laughed.

"Of course you are Brenda, don't tell me you haven't thought about what it's going to be like"

"I suppose. I'm probably wrong; I don't have any real idea of what it's like"

"Brenda, it's doing whatever makes you both happy" I paused for a moment. "You've been married so you know what it's like with a guy. Well a woman can give you everything a man can and much more, because women are more emotionally aware, we need the emotional as much as the physical" I smiled for a moment, thinking back to Ana and making love to her slowly and softly.

"With Anastasia, we often we spend more time talking and holding and feeling than we do actually having sex" Brenda must have had an idea of what I was thinking of. Her voice was soft.

"You're very lucky Natalie" I nodded.

"I know I am. I wonder sometimes how I got to be so blessed. I love an incredible, beautiful woman with all my heart, and she feels the same about me. It wasn't how I saw my life going when I was young, but I'm so fortunate, I wouldn't change anything" She nodded slowly, a wistful look on her face.

"You are lucky"

"You are too Brenda, you have the same thing waiting for you. Sharon will be there to give you emotional comfort and support if you need it, if you want soft, loving sex, then a woman's intimate knowledge of female anatomy will make it pretty special as well" She looked at the table, her cheeks slightly flushed.

"You make it sound wonderful"

"It can be Brenda, especially with two beautiful, intelligent women who want to please each other. On the other hand, if you need it hard and raw, well a woman can do it all night long. Hell, when Ana and I get into the mood, well neither of us gets any sleep and we're both pretty sore the following day" I grinned, might as well throw a little more petrol on the fire.

"I might suggest that your first night with Sharon be a Friday or Saturday, that way you can recover a bit before dragging your sore and sorry asses in on Monday morning" Brenda laughed, a delightfully happy sound. '_Mission accomplished_'

"You are awful" I grinned.

"I try" Brenda looked around before leaning in conspiratorially.

"So tell me Natalie, honestly, what are the things I need to know about making Sharon happy"

"Loving her will do that Brenda, but if you really need to know, I'm sure that there are any number of things that'll have you screaming her name or her screaming yours" She leaned further in and looked at me squarely.

"Well, I'm waiting"

"Brenda, you seriously want some sex advice from me?"

"Well, you're the expert sitting here and you're the one who's been trying to embarrass me, so yes, I do"

"Oh well ok" Where do I start?

"And I want to hear all bout that lesbian tool kit you were talking about earlier" I smiled, this was going to be fun.

"This might take a while, you want another hot chocolate?" She sat back with a satisfied smile on her face.

"Yes please"


	55. Chapter 55

**A/N** One of the key premises of this chapter owes itself to a wonderful one shot story by Crispy75, "Shopping", found under L&O SVU / R&I crossovers. Thank you so much for the wonderful story and the inspiration

**Jane and Brenda talk**

Jane's viewpoint

I was wandering out of the elevators with Provenza after chasing down a few leads on the sniper's white van when the Chief, who was walking out, paused and asked if she might have a word later.

When the boss asks, you say yes, but then she paused, looking almost embarrassed, before correcting herself and asking if I would be agreeable to meeting up for a coffee after work, say around five?

I was surprised, but realising what it was likely about I let her know it'd be fine, once I let Maura know.

In return I got her patented dazzling smile, before we went our separate ways.

Chatting to Maura, she was more than agreeable, as she agreed with my hunch about what this meeting was probably about. Maura would take a taxi home, leaving me with the cruiser so I could get home no matter what time we finished.

Come five the Chief swung by my desk, leading me out of the building and on a 15 minute walk before she guided me into a welcoming cafe. We were met by a dark haired girl, who greeted Brenda warmly; it seemed she was a regular here.

The waitress, Sarah, led us to a booth at the back before heading off to get my coffee order, apparently Brenda came here often enough that Sarah knew what she'd be having.

I wasn't sure where to start so I leaned back and let Brenda lead the way.

"First thing Jane, this isn't a formal performance evaluation, more an informal catch up" I nodded at her smile.

"Sure thing Chief"

"Firstly, I'm very happy with the job you've done since you arrived, in the six weeks since you joined you've fitted in really well with the team, they like you and more importantly they trust you" I nodded.

"They're good people, a lot of experience there, I'm learning a lot here, which is one of the reasons I came to LA" She smiled at me.

"Well, I have to say that anyone who can go toe to toe with Flynn and Provenza over baseball is welcome, it stops them pestering the rest of us" I shrugged.

"Can't help it that the Sox kicked the Dodgers asses, again"

"Well, there is that as well" Just then my coffee and her hot chocolate arrived, so we spent a moment, enjoying them. I considered how comfortable I was doing this, compared to sitting down with Cavanagh back in Boston, which was something I did generally under protest.

"Your work helping to break the sniper case was appreciated as well" I looked down at my coffee, feeling embarrassed.

"Well, it was a lucky guess Chief, and lots of other people's work got us to that point"

"Perhaps, but it was still good work. Brenda looked at me and cocked her head to one side. "So are there any areas that you feel you need to get more exposure to?"

"Well, everyone tells me your interrogations are worth seeing, so I'd like to be there for any that I can. I know that I could watch them from the electronics room, but you don't get the same experience because you're not in there"

"What in particular do you want to see?" I shrugged.

"I don't know, the Catorcie one wasn't really typical, that had a lot of theatrics to it, I normally do lead interrogations back in Boston and want to learn about why you do the things you do" Brenda leaned forward, resting her chin on her hand as she regarded me.

"Such as?"

"Well, I'm used to not having a table there; just giving the suspect a chair, so you can see every move, every twitch, give them nothing to hide behind" Brenda smiled at me.

"Ah, well, besides the lawyers here tossing a fit if they don't have a table for their Gucci briefcases and papers and all, I like having a table there for two reasons. One is it gives me a surface to lay out evidence, like those photos with Little Dog, so they sit there where it's hard to avoid looking at them" I nodded, it made sense.

"And the second?"

"I like the fact that it brings a sense of familiarity, I find that by letting them feel comfortable, they psychologically relax, making them more likely to get lazy and make a mistake. Plus, if you want to surprise them, you can shift the tempo a bit. Y'know, start out friendly and them come down hard on them, it makes it hard to do that when they're feeling defensive and intimidated from the start like you'd be doing"

"Ok, I can see where you're coming from, horses for courses I suppose"

"Let me ask you then, why do you prefer interrogations your way?" Brenda sounded curious so I thought about it for a few seconds.

"Well, in addition to the reasons I mentioned, I get restless in an interview, a lot of nervous energy builds up, I bleed it off pacing around the suspect, keeping them off balance, sometimes I walk behind them, so they're not sure what I'm doing" I shrugged.

"It also allows me to be a bit physically intimidating with suspects. I've always had to be a bit tougher, harder and fitter than the cops around me, just to be accepted, so I tend to use that to scare suspects" She smiled.

"I'm surprised that the lawyers back in Boston haven't tried to get that thrown out Jane, some of the judges here in LA wouldn't take kindly to those tactics" I nodded, accepting her gentle warning.

"Mostly I use it on the scumbags who we know are guilty. Most of the homicides back in Boston are pretty straightforward, crimes of passion or violent crimes gone wrong, often it's just shaking their confidence and they trip up" She nodded.

"I could see how that works, but I don't normally try and intimidate suspects physically…what?" Brenda stopped and stared at me as I burst out laughing at the mental image that popped into my head.

"I'm sorry Chief, I'm kinda having trouble seeing you as the intimidating type" She raised both eyebrows at me.

"Really, you don't think I can be intimidating?" I realised I could be stepping into dangerous territory here, but backed into a corner, I had to be honest.

"Well Chief, you don't come across as all that physical, you look far too nice and well dressed and well…polite, to be scary, especially to a murderer"

Brenda looked away and smiled, more to herself than to me. I suddenly realised that wasn't a very pleasant smile, it looked like nothing I'd ever seen her use before, her eyes were a long way away, seeing something that'd happened in her past, something unpleasant; something… ugly.

Truth be told that particularly smile was just a little scary; it suggested things better left unsaid. Finally she spoke in a soft voice.

"I can assure you there are other ways to be intimidating than being physical Jane"

I suddenly remembered Ana mentioning that Brenda had gone out into the field before the Gulf War with the CIA; sure as hell she hadn't gone for the sightseeing. Whatever she'd done, it'd been enough to be decorated for it. Brenda's smile changed as she came back to the present and looked at me.

"Besides, if physical is required, I always have people like Julio, Andy and yourself available" I smiled, while I wondered what exactly she'd done in her past. "By the way, I found your solution to the result of your bet with Julio to be an interesting one" I shrugged.

"If we couldn't find a winner after six rounds, well it's kinda academic"

"288 out of 300 places both of you in the LAPD's top marksman category, I knew Julio was good and I'd heard you were as well, but that's an exceptional result" I shrugged again, feeling embarrassed.

"We were both having a good day"

Truth be told I was kinda pissed, I should have won, I could shoot better than that and I had done. Mind you, Sanchez had shot better results as well, so it looked like we were both having an off day but I wasn't going to say that. The main thing was that I'd be happy to have him at my back anytime when the shit went down. I guess it was mutual.

"Well, I'm impressed with your resolution" We'd told everyone to ante up half their bet and throw it in a pot, with the total paying for our next serious post-case celebration at O'Malley's. We'd ended up with more than $250 in there, which would more than cover our next tab rather nicely.

"It seemed a good result; otherwise people would be after us for a rematch. This way it puts it to rest and the team gets to enjoy the result" Brenda nodded.

"It seems everyone else did, as there were no complaints about it"

"Well, they're good people, you have a good team"

"And you've fitted in well. Would you like to stay when the six months are up?" I leaned back; Maura had mentioned the Chief had asked her that question as well.

"It depends on Maura really, I go where she goes, but I'm enjoying it here" Brenda leaned back.

"And she goes where you go" It wasn't a question.

"Yeah, we'll make that call together" Brenda nodded again.

"Jane, I was wondering if I could ask you a couple of personal questions" I nodded.

"Yeah, Maura told me that you would likely have some questions for me" I shrugged. "I asked Maura how your lunch was and she told me it went well, then I asked what you talked about and well, Maura can't lie" At Brenda's disbelieving look I tried to explain. "No honestly, she gets physically sick if she tries. Anyhow, she explained you were interested in how we got together" Brenda looked embarrassed.

"Well I was; I wanted to know why you entered into a relationship with Maura. I understand it was something you'd had no previous experience of"

"This wouldn't have anything to do with last weekend would it?" Brenda just nodded, before looking down at her half-drunk chocolate.

I smiled to myself, Maura hadn't explained exactly what was behind Brenda's questions, but I could guess. I'd been sitting right next to her as Sharon did a pretty good job of subtly teasing her over lunch.

"Brenda, I'd never had any experience with a woman before I met Maura." I sat back and took a sip of my coffee before continuing, putting my thoughts in order.

"I was raised an Italian Catholic. In the Church's eye's homosexuality is a sin, so it wasn't exactly something I raced out to try. I mean, yeah, I'd looked at women, admiring the really attractive ones, wishing I looked more like them and less like an Italian string bean, but that was the extent of it, until our new M.E. arrived" Leaning forwards, I put the cup back down and continued.

"It wasn't like she strutted into the room in five inch heels and I had to have her, it wasn't anything like that. We worked together well, I found her interesting, I'd never met anyone like her before, we became friends" I shrugged.

"In a way that was a bad thing, because I'd never had a friend like her before. The more I got to know her, the more I liked her, even though she's quirky and a bit awkward around people I really liked her" Brenda shook her head.

"You're joking aren't you? Maura Isles has never looked like she's awkward around people to me, she carries herself well" I nodded.

"She wasn't always like that. When I first met her, she was socially insecure, she was very smart, very knowledgeable, but her social skills weren't good. Her parents weren't real affectionate and then she was packed off to a French boarding school at age ten, where they poured all sorts of stuff inside that big brain of hers, shame they forgot to teach her about dealing with people. I mean she could deal with people in a formal setting but wasn't any good at the social skills"

"Maura mentioned that you had changed her" I nodded.

"I had to Brenda; she was this amazing person, best M.E. I'd ever seen, full of knowledge, incredibly smart, generous, giving, but she was so repressed, she was unsure about how to deal with people socially, it nearly broke my heart. I liked her and made it my job to get her out and feel part of our team, she was a part of Homicide; we wouldn't have closed half the cases we did without her. I wasn't going to let her not get the recognition she deserved, so I made sure she got pulled into it" I pursed my lips, remembering those early days.

"The first few times with the guys at Friday drinks at the Robber were really difficult for her, so I arranged to catch up with her on the weekend to talk through what had happened the previous Friday night, tell her what was actually happening, rather than what she had thought had happened" I smiled at the memories.

"We became friends, we were complete opposites but we really clicked. Over time we ended up really close, we spent more and more time together, because we enjoyed each other's company more than anyone else's" Brenda nodded, listening intently but content to let me talk.

"I didn't wake up one day and realise I wanted to sleep with Maura" I paused. "Well we already kinda were, I'd come over to her place, we'd have dinner and watch a movie or a documentary or a game or whatever, then crash on the bed, talking till we fell asleep. More than once I woke up to find her snuggled up against me, which at first kinda freaked me out, but I got used to it"

I shook my head at the memory of that first morning when I'd woken up to find her head on my shoulder and her arm across my stomach. I'd almost run out but held it together because she was comfortable and I wanted to make her happy.

"Over time my feelings moved from friend to best friend to appreciating what an amazing person she was, admiring all the good in her, until I realised I was in love with her"

I looked down at the table for a moment, wondering how open I could be. Maura had told me that she'd tried to be as open as possible; I suppose I could be as well; this was our relationship we were talking about, the thing that made me the happiest person in the world.

"The problem was she was my best friend, the person who meant more to me than anything"

I looked up at Brenda expecting to see her brown eyes watching me, similar to mine but subtly different, but the intensity in them was a surprise. I suddenly realised how important this was to her, this was her future I was influencing. Brenda needed to hear the truth; to hear it all. I made up my mind to give her that.

"Brenda, I was petrified, I was in love with my best friend, I didn't know what to do, I was terrified that if she learned what I was thinking I'd drive her away, she'd leave and I'd lose the person who meant more to me than anything else. I couldn't risk that so I denied it, buried it deep and tried to be the best friend I could" Brenda nodded slowly, her voice soft.

"I've seen you together, that must have been so hard, to deny what you so obviously have"

"You have no idea. It hurt to be with her, to be so close and not be able to have her. At times it was pure torture" Especially seeing her with guys, particularly that bastard Ian.

"Did you have no idea that Maura was attracted to you, no idea at all?"

"There were signs, but I was afraid I was seeing what I wanted to see there. Turns out Maura was feeling the same and had made the same decision, to deny what she felt because she was afraid I'd reject her" Thinking back I remembered the ache, the tears and the longing, all combining into pain that never went away, in the end it felt like breathing, always there but something you never considered unless you thought about it.

Brenda nodded very slowly, sympathy evident in her eyes.

"What happened, how'd you find your way to what you both wanted" I smiled.

"It happened completely by accident. We went to New York to go shopping, well Maura wanted to go shopping and I went with her when she asked, I'd do anything to make her happy, even go shopping" I smiled. "Ana tells me I'm whipped, guess she's right" Brenda laughed.

"As if she's anyone to talk, Natalie has that girl at her beck and call"

"Yeah, I tell her that too. Anyway, we bumped into some people in a dress shop who were in the same situation, almost literally. An Assistant Deputy Attorney and a detective, they worked together and were close friends, but nothing more. Turned out they were in exactly the same boat we were. Exactly"

"While Maura and Alex were trying dresses on, Olivia and I got to chatting, turns out I look a lot like a former work colleague of theirs. We hit it off, realising we were more alike than we knew and we all went out for dinner together that night" I smiled fondly, remembering that night. "After dinner Maura led us to a nearby club, which turned out to be a lesbian club. When I got cold feet she told me it was appropriate and time to smell the roses. To cut a long story short, some truths came out"

"We eventually ended up back at our hotel, a little drunk, which helped us get over our awkwardness. The first time wasn't everything you expect when two people who've been attracted to each other for so long finally take off the restraints, I mean it was hot and messy and awkward and making certain everything fit right" I laughed gently.

"Good thing Maura had some experience; otherwise I would have come off like a fumbling fifteen year old boy. I mean you know your way around your own body naturally, but another woman's well it's a bit unnerving the first time, especially when you don't want to do anything wrong, to disappoint the other person"

"But it worked out for you both?" I shrugged.

"Kinda, I don't mean the sex part. Once I got over the whole 'oh my god it's a woman' thing, I eventually relaxed, Maura led me into what she wanted, got me comfortable and kept reassuring me that I was doing the right thing" I paused for another sip of coffee.

"Brenda, making the person you love happy, well that overcomes any awkwardness. That came the following morning, when the buzz had worn off and we had to contemplate what we'd done. I woke up first and realised I'd crossed a fucking big line, what if Maura didn't want me, what if I'd pushed her into something she didn't want? I was terrified, I was almost physically sick" I stopped and looked Brenda in the eyes.

"I almost ran, almost bolted out of there, scared out of my wits that I'd lost her" She raised an eyebrow.

"Why didn't you?" I smiled.

"I had the one person I'd dreamed of, fantasised of, desperately hoped for, lying in bed naked snuggled across me with her head on my shoulder. Even if I could have moved without waking her, I couldn't leave her there. All I could think of was that if I left I'd be a fucking coward and I'd lose any chance of repairing a friendship if it had all been a terrible mistake" Brenda nodded.

"But it wasn't was it?" I shook my head.

"No it wasn't. When she woke up, she said hi, kissed me, called me '_my love_', then snuggled back into my shoulder and went back to sleep" I laughed. "That sort of told me Maura was good with it. After a while we were both awake and talked about what'd happened and well, neither of us wanted to go back to how we were before"

"Was it really that easy?" I snorted.

"Sure, if you considered two and a half years of pain and anguish easy, I guess it was" Brenda looked shocked, before rushing to apologise.

"I'm sorry Jane, I didn't mean it like that, I'm sorry" I nodded.

"I know what you meant Brenda; it just took us forever to get across the barriers that we'd built up to how we really felt"

"To finish off that story, once we eventually got up, it was early afternoon and Maura rang Alex to say hi and thank them for a great evening; turns out they'd had almost exactly the same evening we had. They were not long out of bed either, so we met up and had a late lunch together"

"It turns out their issues between them had been going on even longer, with a lot more shit happening in their lives. To see them together, well they were so happy they didn't know if they should laugh or cry" I smiled at the memory. "I completely understood where they were coming from; we'd walked to the restaurant hand in hand, just doing that meant so much"

"What happened afterwards?" I frowned.

"Well, we decided to wait a bit before we came out and then only to those people who had to know. Most of the people we were working with thought we were in a relationship and keeping it quiet, while those closest to us knew we weren't, so we decided to tell our families, my partners, our boss and HR" Brenda nodded.

"How did they take that, especially your families? I sighed.

"Not too well actually. My mother was ok with it eventually. Not so good at first, but she loved Maura like a daughter, so she came round" I laughed. "Typical immigrant mom, she'd always wanted her kids to marry a doctor" Brenda smiled, appreciating the joke.

"One of my brothers was cool, the other not so much, he wanted Maura too and is still pretty pissed at me" I shrugged. "That I can handle" Tommy's attitude pissed me off, but he was always going to come a long way second after Maura.

"Maura's parents didn't approve, at all. Her mother was coolly concerned, worried that we were doing the right thing. I can't fault her, that's a mother's reaction. Her father wasn't happy at all and tried to get her to walk away. Didn't happen, but it hurt her to not get their blessing" I ground my teeth gently, remembering Maura's anguish that they didn't approve of something that made her happier than she had ever been, it still rankled.

I could see Brenda giving that thought a lot of attention. I didn't know anything about her parents, or even if they were still alive. If they were and Brenda ended up where I hoped, she'd have to deal with that too.

"My partners in Homicide, Frost and Korsak were cool; they'd had a bet on for years about when we'd finally get a clue. Our boss, Cavanagh, well, as long as we behaved ourselves at work, what happened at home stayed at home as far as he was concerned. Mind you, a few nasty rumors started up, nothing I hadn't heard before, but I wasn't too pleased hearing them again, or having Maura hear them"

I remembered slamming that bastard Crowe against a brick wall after one too many rug-munching 'jokes', this time about Maura. It'd taken both Frost and Korsak to pull me off him before I'd happily broken something painful.

"Maura knew I was getting stressed about the grief we were getting, seriously half of it was sheer jealousy, most of the guys wanted Maura and here she was with me and their egos couldn't handle it" I spread my hands. "It was getting to me, but I thought I could deal with it" I looked up as a couple of kids wandered in and sat a few tables away.

"For a while we seemed to be making headway, it sort of died out, then word got out I was up for consideration for promotion to Sergeant" I leaned back in the chair.

"A few people couldn't handle '_Dyke-tective_' Jane Rizzoli getting promoted over them, so they started rumours, I was getting preferential treatment because I was gay and they were doing it to make nice with the gay community. Another was that they were doing it because Maura was using her families influence to put pressure on the Chief and Mayor's office to get me promoted" I sighed heavily.

"Honestly Brenda, it was pissing me off, which was bleeding into my work, our work really; it was a strain that neither of us needed. That's why when Maura told me about the opportunity to come out here, I jumped at it. I would have taken leave without pay to be with her and get away from Boston" Brenda smiled.

"I'm glad you could come out to LA and very pleased that you could be part of Major Crimes" I smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, it's been good" Brenda and I sat there for a bit, in quiet silence, me thinking about how things out here had turned out, Brenda obviously thinking over what I'd told her. I decided that I'd answered her questions, maybe she could answer mine.

"What now Chief?" She looked off into the distance for a moment, before my question penetrated.

"I don't know"

"Looks like you've got a few options. You can tell Sharon that you're incredibly flattered and if you're gay you'd jump at the chance, but unfortunately you're not" She just sighed and shook her head. "I know Brenda, that mightn't end too well" Brenda looked up at me and laughed a slightly bitter laugh, her voice mocking.

"Gee, you think?" I held up my hand and nodded.

"I know, but it's one option. Another is to let it play out while you make up your mind" Brenda shook her head.

"I can't do that, that'd be leading Sharon on and I can't do that to her, I just couldn't" I pursed my lips, knowing that what I was about to say was going to hurt but it was necessary.

"Why not Brenda, you obviously didn't go looking for any of this, why are you caring about Sharon's feelings when she's dumped you in this mess" She looked at me with a shocked expression on her face.

"I couldn't possibly hurt her like that, she's my friend; I care for her too much to hurt her, how could you possibly suggest such a thing?" I smiled, having got the response I wanted.

"Easy, if it makes you think about how you feel about her. If you care enough to not want to hurt her, then you care enough to talk to her about it" She scowled at me for a moment, obviously working out I'd goaded her into a corner. Not being one to leave well enough alone I kept going.

"Who knows, you might find out that there are worse options than Sharon, from what I hear you've been there at least three times" Her frown darkened, the patented Rizzoli charm at work yet again.

"Look Brenda, is the thought of a woman loving you that repulsive? Honestly? Sharon cares enough for you that she's willing to risk your friendship to build something more. Is that such a bad thing?" Her frown disappeared at my words.

"No, yes…I don't know" I smiled.

"Well that's honest" I looked down into the dregs of my coffee for a moment, putting the words together.

"Look, I was alone for much of my adult life, I'd find guys, they'd want me, they'd chase me and I'd get into a relationship with them, they'd try and change me and I'd dump them" I shrugged. "I spent my life meeting people who tried to change me into something I wasn't, because they wouldn't accept who I was and what I was" I saw a strange expression come over the Chief's face, something in what I'd said had touched a nerve.

"Maura knew what I was, understood who I was, accepted me as I was and loved me for who I am. That's more than any guy I ever met ever did" She nodded slowly as I pressed on.

"Brenda, I ran from what I felt for a long time, afraid I'd lose my best friend, that I'd be tarred as a lezzie, a dyke, a rug-muncher, you name it. I was scared, scared of what I might lose and what I might be called" I looked off into the distance, remembering everything that happened, how I wouldn't trade what I had for anything.

"You know what though? I realised that being afraid didn't mean shit, compared to what we have, and as for the names, well the way I felt about Maura convinced me that all the rest was just labels. Maura meant too much to me to be limited by what other people might think or say" Brenda was silent as the thoughts piled out.

"Y'know, I sort of didn't really feel like a lesbian, I thought it was just a Maura thing, that I was straight and Maura was just an exception. Now I'm not so sure" Brenda's voice was quiet.

"Why, what happened?"

"Something Natalie did and Anastasia said. Natalie was playing a joke on me at our place one night, they came over for dinner and Natalie was teasing me. She snuggled up against me and cuddled me, basically plastered up against me as she teased me in front of Maura and Ana, I got embarrassed, started stammering, which was the intention. I was realising that I was attracted to her, not like Maura, but I was kinda responding to her as a sexy woman and she was getting me hot and bothered, so I suppose I must be a lesbian" Brenda laughed happily.

"Well, you've just successfully achieved the fantasy of most of the senior echelons of the LAPD, plus the majority of the male members of Major Crimes, so I'd count yourself lucky" I nodded slowly.

"True, Ana told me later that it didn't matter what label I put on it, you are what you are, which I suppose means that I am a lesbian" I realised I was rambling.

"Sorry Brenda, this is supposed to be about you" She shrugged, a smile on her face.

"It's fine Jane, you've helped me a lot. I'm still not sure exactly what I'm going to do with Sharon, but that's my problem"

"Look Brenda, no matter what happens; you're still our friend, so's Sharon. Nothing's going to change there, whether you're separate or together" She smiled at me.

"Thank you, I appreciate that, no matter how this ends" I looked at her, feeling she needed a push.

"It's your call, but I'd really like to see you and Sharon by the pool at our place, making out without a care in the world, while we watch" She laughed, a happy, bubbly sound.

"Why on earth would you be interested in seeing a pair of middle-aged women doing that, you have Maura, she's stunning, why settle for anything less" I smiled, teasing her.

"Because the two of you are beautiful and watching the two of you together would be hot" I shrugged. "I must be a lesbian, 'cause I'd pay to see that" Brenda's laugh was if anything even happier.

"You Jane Rizzoli; are a bad influence. Don't you know it's an offence to try and corrupt a senior officer? Let's get out of here before you get into any more trouble" I grinned back at her.

"I think Sharon's the one corrupting you. I'm just here to cheer you both on" Smiling, we made our way to the front of the café and paid, before walking back to the work car park.

Finally arriving at her car, we stood there for a moment, before I asked the question I'd wanted to ask for a while.

"So Brenda, do you know what comes next?" She stood there, a shadow in the darkened car park.

"I honestly don't know. On the one hand it's nothing I'd ever thought of and I'm a bit scared of where it's going and it's all happening so fast. On the other I could imagine that being together could be nice, to have someone to be with, to care for and have them care for you" I nodded.

"Brenda, no one else in the squad knows about this, but they all want you to be happy. I've heard comments about how they wish you were happy, that you were the person you were, before everything bad happened. They miss that person"

I could see her head bob as she nodded.

"I want to be the person I once was, but I'm not sure I can be, maybe I'd be better off alone, I mean I've had enough goes and it never worked out" She sighed "Perhaps Sharon would be better off not getting involved with me, I'm not good at relationships" I felt a tinge of annoyance run through me, she was smarter than this.

"Bullshit! You just didn't have the right person to be with. I don't know if Sharon's the right person, but if you don't get over your fear and take a chance, you'll never know" She was silent as we stood there, before I spoke again.

"How hard can it be Brenda? If I can do it, so can you"

"You were in love with Maura; I'm not in love with Sharon"

"You could be, if you let yourself overcome your fear" She was silent for a while before speaking.

"You're right; it's the fear of the unknown. I've never even contemplated a woman before, let alone thought about touching or kissing them, it scares me" I shrugged, even if she couldn't see it in the dark.

"Like I said Brenda, it's not that hard"

"I don't know what to do Jane, I don't…" Her voice trailed off.

It hurt me to hear this strong, proud, successful woman so unsure, so afraid. I wanted to fix it, make her believe. God knows Maura and I lost so much time because we were afraid, afraid of '_what if's_' rather than seeing '_what could be_'.

"Brenda, it's all instinct, just go with it, just don't let your brain get in the way" I suddenly had an evil thought. I grinned to myself, thankful she couldn't see my face in the dark.

I reached out and placed a hand on each arm, holding her.

"Brenda, you can have something good, something you deserve, if you're prepared to let go, to stop thinking and feel. You're not sure if you can do this right?" Her voice was low.

"No"

"You're wrong, let me show you" I leaned in and kissed her on the cheek, feeling her pull away a fraction in surprise, before she stopped. I smiled to myself.

"You seemed to do that ok, let's try this" With that I leaned in and kissed her, a chaste one on her lips, just for a second or so but Brenda didn't pull away this time. She tasted of chocolate and cinnamon and I caught the hint of orchids. She tasted and smelled feminine and nice.

I stepped back slightly, letting go of her arms, the smile in my voice evident to both of us.

"Hmm, Natalie and now you, yep, I'm definitely a lesbian" Brenda was still silent, probably still in shock. I laughed; I'd silenced Brenda Leigh Johnson.

"I think you can definitely get me charged with corrupting a senior officer now, along with assault and sexual harassment" Brenda was silent for a moment longer, before softly speaking.

"Jane, I'm, er, well, yes"

"The world hasn't ended Brenda, you're still the person you've always been, you needed to understand that you haven't changed, only your experiences. Being with Sharon isn't the end of the world, but it might be the start of a new one"

Her voice was so soft I almost didn't hear it.

"I... I understand… and thank you Jane" This was getting a bit heavy so I fell back on my usual response, sarcasm and deflection.

"My pleasure Chief, I gotta say this has been the most enjoyable performance evaluation I've ever had. If I kiss you again do I get a better score?" Brenda's laugh was quick and rich.

"If you did, I'd have to do it for the rest of the squad and well, just…no" I grinned at that thought.

"So sleeping with you is out of the question too, that ought to get me a perfect score"

"Jane!" My voice was as innocent as I could make it, under the circumstances.

"Yes?"

"You're as bad as Natalie" I laughed.

"No one's as bad as Natalie" Brenda's voice was full of happiness.

"You have a point and besides, Maura would kill me"

"Good point Chief, never piss off someone who knows her way around human anatomy, who isn't afraid of the sight of blood and has access to scalpels. Besides, if I did sleep with you, Sharon would kill me, and then she'd have a conflict of interest, she can't investigate herself y'know"

I could hear the laugh in Brenda's voice.

"Get out of here Jane, before we get into more trouble" I grinned to myself, I'd achieved what I wanted to do, which was make her happy.

"I dunno Chief; you could be all sorts of good trouble"

"Off with you, go home to Maura and tell her that she's very lucky to have you"

"I'm the lucky one Brenda and so are you"

"We'll see, now get out of here"

I leaned in, carefully, but she didn't move away as I kissed her again, gently on the lips, before pulling away.

"Good night Chief Johnson" Her voice was soft.

"Good night Detective Rizzoli" I watched as she quietly got into her car and drove off, before pulling out my cell phone and ringing Maura to tell her I was on my way home.

We'd done all that we could, it was now up to Brenda.


	56. Chapter 56

**Brenda and Sharon do dinner, not a date Part 1**

Brenda's viewpoint

Well, here I was, sitting at a table in a lovely French restaurant, looking good and nervous as anything, waiting for my dinner date to arrive. Except it wasn't really a date, it was just dinner, with Sharon.

Mind you, after the last week I didn't think there was such a thing as 'just' with Sharon anymore. The pool party last weekend and Monday night's coffee had made it clear how much everything had changed. Tonight was a chance to put some things on the table and maybe see where we stood.

I looked down to where my hands were rubbing on my slacks, it had to be a nervous habit as they weren't sweaty, or at least not yet. How nervous I was tonight was showing in how I was dressed. I'd gone shopping for something different as my first choice, a little black dress, hadn't really seemed appropriate.

The second, the red dress I've mentally tagged as my 'interview dress' after wearing it to that interview with the Mayor for the Chief's job, was probably not appropriate either. I know Sharon had been impressed when she had seen it on me, but I thought that I needed something with a little less history between us.

Over Friday lunch with Maura at that macrobiotic place I'd let her know I was having dinner with Sharon and why, before I knew it she and Natalie had arranged to pick me up this morning and we'd whisked ourselves off to a bunch of high end boutiques on Rodeo Drive, looking at clothes.

Next I knew it I was staring at myself in a black Armani trouser suit which made my figure look better than it was, plus as Natalie put it, gave me endless legs to die for. Maura had insisted on a pair of Laboutine patent leather black spiked heels that added at least four inches to my height, but even I had to admit that I looked really good in them.

I'd never spent that much on a pair of heels, let alone a suit, but as they both explained, the heels were timeless and I could wear the suit to work, so the money was well spent. I ended up with a crisp white tailored blouse under it, teamed with a gold chain around my neck and some simple gold studs that had been a gift from Fritz years ago.

I fidgeted a bit as I realised I looked a lot more like Sharon that I normally ever did, all power pants suit and high heels. I'd even straightened my hair to change my look to go with the new clothes. Sharon was a few minutes late, which was quite unlike her, but she may have been caught in traffic, leaving me time to think.

I'd asked her to come to dinner with me yesterday morning, it'd been a hectic week and I'd not had a chance to catch up with her since Monday evening. The Thursday senior officers meeting had flown and I'd been too wrapped up in my thoughts to pay much attention, although I know Sharon must have sensed something was up.

I'd caught up with her at her office down in FID late on Friday morning and asked her to meet me for Saturday dinner as I had a few things I needed to talk to her about. When she had asked why, I'd been evasive, but finally relented enough to tell her it was about us.

The tone of her voice had changed dramatically and she'd looked nervously at the floor, obviously she had understood I was aware of what she'd done, but was confused about why we were having dinner, rather than me ripping strips off her.

The worry and sadness in her eyes and realisation I had done this to the proud woman in front of me had been too much and I'd tried to make light of it, telling her that we needed a break after a heavy week, so she should dress up nice for dinner and a few drinks. It wasn't anything we hadn't done before, but it was obvious to us both that this time was different.

Her eyes had opened at the news we were going to Melisse, out at Santa Monica, it was a highly rated restaurant, not our usual fare at all, so immediately it put her off balance. The food here was supposed to be really good, so if nothing else I should get a good meal out of this, even if the prices were a little extreme. Fortunately, a Chief's salary was reasonably good and I'd not really had much to spend it on up till now, even if I did wince a little at the prices on the menu.

I only hoped that I got to enjoy the food; god I hoped things went well tonight.

I almost wished I was heading out with the girls; they were apparently planning a very big night, as they had all taken themselves off the call out roster for the weekend. Talking to Maura and Natalie this morning while shopping, it seemed that Jane and Ana were in for a very, very wild night. I'd made them promise to take some photos; I wanted to see what they looked like as the descriptions sounded incredible and I couldn't wait to hear how it all went.

I found it funny, here I was wondering how a night with two lesbian couples hitting a ladies-only nightclub was going to work out. My, how my life had changed in only a few weeks, well a week really.

Looking around, I saw the place was quite busy, I'd only got a reservation after Maura had rung on my behalf to book and charmed the Maître D with her French. I owed her big time for this; I owed all of them really, for all their kindness to me. I wasn't used to having people willing to go out of their way to help me, the only people I'd been able to rely on were the guys in the squad, now it seemed I had some real friends who wanted me to be happy.

I thought about that for a few moments, before looking around at the other tables. The people around me were all wrapped up in their meals. It wasn't really a business crowd; older people celebrating an anniversary, younger couples cementing their relationships with an expensive meal, a pair of probably gay men laughing together over dessert while a family was obviously taking their matriarch out for a major birthday at a large table by the corner. I wondered how many had looked at me and wondered what I was doing here.

I caught a flash of movement from the door to see a waiter leading Sharon to the table; looking lovely and very feminine in a deep green dress and matching heels, setting off her hair which seemed to shine with even more red highlights under the lights here. She'd styled it with waves and it looked very soft and rich.

Standing as she approached, I saw her eyes widen as she took in what I was wearing, for a moment it struck me that our normal roles were reversed, she the feminine one and I wearing the power pants suit.

"Brenda that looks lovely on you" I smiled as we exchanged kisses on our cheeks.

"Thank you Sharon, you look lovely as well, I like the softer look on you" She blushed slightly as we sat and made ourselves comfortable, ordering white wine and being offered the menu.

"Thank you for inviting me Brenda, this restaurant has quite a reputation. I let my mouth quirk a bit.

"It'd better, given what they charge. Seriously though, I'd heard good things about it and I wanted to eat here for a while, I just needed an excuse"

"Do you like French food?"

"I gained an appreciation for it on a trip to Paris years ago. I was a… guest of the French Government and the person looking after me made sure I got to appreciate the best of Paris while I was there" Sharon nodded slowly.

"Was that when you were with the agency?" I lifted an eyebrow; I'd never really mentioned that part of my life to her. No time like the present I supposed.

"Yes, I was there for almost two weeks, helping in the interrogation of a Russian defector. It was quite surreal, matching wits with him during the day, trying to work out if he was genuine or a plant; and enjoying the wonderful Paris nightlife at night" Her voice was both soft and full of curiosity.

"How did it work out?" I looked down at the cutlery for a moment, wondering what to say. The truth won out.

"He was a plant, we tripped him up and his story started to unravel. It was stupid. Less than three months later the Berlin Wall fell and it all meant nothing. Instead of faking his defection he could have travelled by car to almost anywhere he wanted, no hiding and no deception. Instead he was thrown in jail, to await a prisoner swap with the Russians, one that never came"

"So what happened?

"Last I heard the French got tired of feeding him, put him on a plane and sent him home to Russia, there was nothing else to do with him really. The cold war was over and we won. He lost five years of his life for nothing"

"What did the war ending mean for you?" I paused as the waiter arrived with our drinks and left us in peace to peruse the menus.

"I hung on for a few more years, did some things I wasn't proud of before leaving the agency, then ended up joining the District of Columbia Metro PD, spent four years there as a lieutenant, before moving to Atlanta for almost four years as a captain. I moved here back in 05 and the rest is history" Sharon nodded pensively at me, obviously taking it in, I'd never really spoken much about what had happened before I got to LA and never about the work at the agency.

"I've been here for almost 15 years after transferring to LA from Philadelphia where I was a beat cop, then detective. I started out as a detective for almost four years, before taking a lieutenant's slot in FID, though it wasn't called that back then. Two years in the captain quit and I went for the job, though there wasn't much competition for it, I got it and the promotion to captain and, well here we are" I smiled.

"It's funny the paths we take"

"It can be, FID isn't where I thought I would end up when I started out as a cop" I nodded.

"It's a job that has to be done and you do it well" "She smiled and sipped her wine, a satisfied look appearing on her face.

"Oh, that is nice" I thought for a moment, might as well, seeing as we were talking…

"What made you come to LA?" She looked pensive for a moment.

"I was fleeing a bad marriage" I nodded, I could understand that completely. I tilted my head to one side, inviting her to continue.

"He was a lawyer, corporate law; I was a very young rookie. We met at a party and hit it off. It was a wild ride, through two kids, his rise as a partner in a major law firm, my promotion to detective and an eventual realisation that it wasn't going to work out long term" She sighed.

"He wasn't happy when his law firm was on the wrong side of a court case from me. Apparently it made his position '_uncomfortable_' at work. After the second or third time he started pushing me to quit the force. In the end we separated; irreconcilable differences was the reason the court accepted"

"I'm sorry Sharon" She smiled at me.

"It's ok Brenda, ancient history now. I raised our kids, Grant, my ex, supported them financially. Our oldest, Lucas studied medicine at Harvard and is doing his surgical residency at a hospital in Cleveland, Heather studied law at Cambridge, and is now an ADA in Miami, she wants to put bad people in jail" She flashed me a quick smile. "As you can imagine she's a grave disappointment to Grant, he wanted her to go into commercial law and join a big law firm"

"They're both very lucky Sharon, to have that opportunity and to have you as their mother"

"I've tried to do the right thing, although I sometimes wish I'd spent less time at work when they were younger" I leaned forward, placing my hand on hers, noticing her jump a fraction as I did. Ah ha, she was as nervous as I was.

"Every working mother wishes the same thing Sharon, mine did, but I can't fault her for how she raised me. I'm sure your kids don't either" Sharon looked down, before raising the menu in an obvious attempt to change the subject

"We need to choose something; I think their waiting for us"

We spent a minute discussing whether we wanted entrees, before deciding we'd rather have desert. For the first course Sharon chose the lobster while I chose calamari and we both settled on the wild salmon for the second. With the waiters gone, we both pulled our glasses off and tossed them on the table, both smiling at the unconscious synchronisation.

Sharon looked at me for a moment, toying with her wine glass, her emerald eyes bright in the light reflecting from the immaculate white linen and gleaming cutlery as she considered me.

"What?"

"Well Brenda, seeing as we're talking about our pasts what about your marriage, the first one?" I hadn't expected that question; still, it was all safely in the past, mostly.

"His name was Dave and he was an ass, although I didn't see it at first. We seemed to be fine, but in the end he couldn't handle the fact that I was married to the job as well as him. It ate away at him till the point that he eventually made a false allegation that I was having an affair with a younger officer. I couldn't prove that he made the complaint, but it was pretty likely that it was him. He was trying to get me fired so that he'd have me all to himself" I shrugged, the time and distance meant it shouldn't hurt so much now, but it still did.

"The ethics inquiry exonerated me, so in celebration I filed for divorce" I shrugged again. "It cost me a promotion I was due though, to major; they thought it wouldn't look good to promote someone who'd had an ethics complaint so soon, so I was told I'd have to wait a couple of years" I reached out and picked up my glass, sniffing the bouquet, before looking over the rim at Sharon.

"I knew it would hang over me so when Pope invited me to apply to head Major Crimes I took it" I savoured the wine, it really was superb.

"You know about Pope and Fritz, so not much more to tell" She frowned at me.

"What's a major equivalent to in the LAPD?"

"Commander" Sharon's jaw fell open, before she composed herself.

"What! Why didn't you tell me" I frowned.

"Whatever for Sharon, it didn't matter"

"But, I… I didn't know. It's only one step from commander to deputy chief"

"I don't see what the problem is Sharon. I didn't get it so I looked elsewhere"

"But I insinuated that you'd got your job here because you'd slept your way into it, when it was only a one step promotion" I suddenly thought I understood what she meant.

"It's ok Sharon, it might have looked that way but I was selected by a competitive selection process" She looked terrible. "Sharon, what's up?"

"What division were you in at Atlanta?"

"I was running the Homicide unit, which was a part of the Major Crimes section of Criminal Investigations" Sharon looked positively stricken, unable to speak. I started to get out of the chair and move to her when she finally looked at me and whispered softly.

"Oh Brenda, I was such a bitch, I'm so sorry" Suddenly realising what was affecting her I slowly settled back in my chair.

"Sharon, it's water under the bridge, we're both different people than we were then"

"Sharon looked down at the tablecloth for almost a minute, composing herself, before she looked up at me again.

"Still, I behaved abominably to you then and I really need to tell you that I'm very, very sorry" I smiled gently.

"Sharon, I was a bitch to you as well, so we're probably even, so no apologies necessary. We don't have to dwell on the past" I lifted my glass and held it out. "To new beginnings" Sharon smiled a little uncertainly and we clinked our glasses together.

"To new beginnings"

I sat back and looked at Sharon, she was a little less nervous but the evening hadn't quite gone as I imagined, and definitely not as she might have thought.

"You look lovely in that suit Brenda, the look really suits you, especially with straight hair" I smiled.

"You can thank Maura and Natalie, they're responsible. They convinced me that I could wear the suit at work, although I'm not so sure about the heels" Sharon leaned slightly to one side to look at them as I lifted a leg to show them off.

"Lovely Brenda, although I have to agree, they're not the best for traipsing around crime scenes, although the red on the soles wouldn't show any blood…" I wrinkled my nose at the thought.

"Gross Sharon; how Maura does it I have no idea" She chuckled.

"I swear that woman must have stiletto runners, she's one of the few people I've ever met who can look comfortable in heels all the time"

"You don't do too bad Sharon, you're always in heels; some of them pretty nice ones too"

"Well, I'm always kinda glad to get them off when I get home" We sat back, smiling at one another. This was the Sharon I remember, the friend I liked spending time with.

Mind you, that wasn't the Sharon she was now, she was a different person now. I was wondering how to broach that particular subject when our first course arrived. The waiters fussed around us for a moment, getting napkins laid across our laps, plates settled and offering us more wine.

We were quiet for a couple of minutes, enjoying the food. This place might be expensive, but the food was so worth it. Sharon obviously thought so as well.

"Oh, this is superb, thanks for inviting me here"

"It was my pleasure sweetie" I saw her start slightly at the term of endearment, definitely not what she was expecting, before a tiny smile graced the corner of her mouth. If I hadn't been looking for it I would have missed it, while her shoulders relaxed just a fraction as well. I smiled a tight secret smile to myself at her reaction.

We ate in a comfortable silence for a few minutes as we finished the first course, the waiters whisking the remains away and offering us a top up before the second course.

"So Sharon, what comes next?" She looked at me curiously as I noticed a slight tremble running through her.

"What do you mean?"

"For you, your life outside FID. What exactly is it that you want?" She looked down at her setting for a while, obviously thinking hard about what she wanted to say. "Honestly Sharon, I want to know"

Deep down I wondered what I wanted her to say. Did I want to hear her say she wanted me?

Sharon wouldn't, she couldn't be that crass; that wasn't her style. I sat quietly looking at her as the waiters appeared with our salmon, the plate appearing in front of her jolting her out of her reverie, causing her to look up at me. The look of sadness on her face hit me so hard it hurt.

I went to speak when she stopped me, holding up a hand. I nodded and waited for her to speak.

"I've had a full life in some respects Brenda; in others it's been pretty empty. I've raised children, proudly watched them grow into wonderful people. Now I'm here, with a job that consumes me and an empty house. I'm no longer young, but I don't think I'm too old to be wanted, to be loved" Her voice cracked a little at the last words and she looked down, not seeing the plate in front of her.

I looked at Sharon, so hurting, feeling my need to reach out to her take over. I slowly moved forward and laid my hand over hers, letting her know she wasn't alone. She started as I touched her, looking up at me, eyes glistening with the hint of unshed tears.

"I need to be wanted for who I am, someone who understand what it is I do, what doing my job means to me, how important it is to me" I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. The look on her face was sad and tired and lonely all wrapped up in one, her voice was low and soft and trembled slightly.

"God help me, I need to do my job, I love my job, even if it gets me nothing but fear and loathing and hatred. In a way I'm the conscience of the LAPD, but not in a good way" She laughed bitterly, the sound startling me, completely without humour.

"I'm the evil fairy tale cops tell one another. Stay on the straight and narrow or FIDs evil bitch will get you. I'm the monster that'll destroy their lives, ruin them, get them fired at best, throw them in jail if I can" She shook her head, before looking at me again.

"What do I want?" She tried to smile but it was a wan, poor excuse for a smile.

"I want someone who understands where I am in my life, who understands that I want to love and be loved. I want to have someone there to care for and who will care for me. That will accept that I'm a police officer and that my job is full of stress and long hours and pain and anger but who doesn't hate me for doing what I do, because I have to do it"

I nodded slowly at her words. I was seeing Sharon in a way I'd never had before, vulnerable and open, she'd always hidden this part of her from me, now she was hiding it no more.

"I want to have someone to hold, someone to hold me and tell me that everything will be ok, even when it's not. Someone who understands that when I come home and be a complete bitch because I've just had to send a fellow officer to jail for breaking the rules, that it's what I have to do" She sighed softly as she looked down again.

"Someone able to bring me back to the real world, not the one I live in that's filled with rules and regulations and red tape that ties me into a box I can't get out of, but the one where I'm just Sharon and I hate my job and I hate the LAPD and I hate the whole fucking world and I need someone to hold me and lie to me and tell me it'll all be ok"

"Sometimes I need to be a little girl and just be held, sometimes I need to be a sulky bitch and then get a kick in the ass and told to snap out of it and sometimes, well sometimes I need a shoulder to cry on when the whole world gets too much" Sharon looked up at me.

"I want someone to be there for me to love and hold and cherish, someone to share my life, without trying to make me something I'm not, or refusing to understand that as much as I hate my job at times, I have to do it, it's too important not to. Most of all I want someone who'll be there for the long haul and willing to take me as I am, because god knows I'm hard work for damned little return"

She smiled at me again, a small sad thing really.

"Crap job really, being with me. Know anyone stupid enough to want it?"

I went to speak again, when she looked down at the plate in front of her, obviously only really noticing it for the first time.

"Our dinner's getting cold Brenda, we'd better eat up. It'd be a crime to let food this good go to waste" I nodded and we ate quietly in silence, as I took in what she'd told me.

I'd never really truly understood the toll her job must take on her. To be scorned and loathed by her colleagues for doing her job. To come home to an empty house and have to deal with it all alone. I was awed by her strength, her ability to keep at it, rather than break under the strain.

I remembered when she told me that she had a job offer outside the LAPD, back when we were trying to beat Goldman. I'd been shocked and angry at the thought she was leaving, I realised then she meant a lot more to me as a friend, that I'd miss her, that I needed her there to help me get through it.

It turned out to be a ruse she used to try and get Goldman to admit who the leak was. It hadn't worked but it had given me an insight into how much she had grown to be a part of my life. The thought of her being gone had left me feeling empty.

I also wondered if Sharon had wished it was true, an escape from the emotional trauma of her job and the LAPD, no more being feared, no more being hated, away from all the pain and suffering her job brought her.

I spent the time as we ate in silence, examining what she'd said, how I felt about it, what I was going to tell her. The thought scared me a bit, could I be as honest as she had? I didn't know.

Finishing the salmon, which was excellent, I leaned back and watched as Sharon finished her meal. Dabbing at her lips with the napkin, she sat back, picking up her glass and sipping at her wine as she looked back at me.

We looked at each other as the waiters cleaned up our meals and replaced them with the dessert menu. I smiled as Sharon pulled a bit of a face, before picking up her glasses and perusing the dessert list.

I did the same and we killed a quiet few minutes discussing the desert options before ordering, then settling back in our chairs.

Sharon looked at me for a moment, before smiling quietly at me.

"You don't get out of it that easily Brenda. It's your turn" I looked down at the table feeling my body tighten. I knew what she was going to say before she said it.

"What do you want Brenda Leigh?"


	57. Chapter 57

**Brenda and Sharon do dinner, not a date Part 2**

Brenda's viewpoint

"What do you want Brenda Leigh?" Sharon's voice was quiet and low, but that didn't help.

I knew it had been coming, but that didn't make it any easier to answer.

I shifted in my chair, trying to buy more time, I wasn't sure if I could be as honest as she had been, Sharon had been raw and open and honest and had told me in no uncertain terms what she wanted, I owed her enough to be as honest as I could in return.

Steeling myself, I took a breath and launched right in.

"I honestly don't know what I really want from life, my life keeps getting turned upside down. My first marriage, that stupid damned affair I'll never live down, then my marriage to Fritz, they all ended badly. The only thing I have in my life that I'm satisfied with is my job" I fiddled with the cutlery on the table, glancing up at Sharon as she watched me, sitting perfectly still and calm, taking in every word.

"I'm a lot like you in that respect Sharon, I love my job, it's what I'm best at, it's what got me up out of bed when Fritz left and it was the only thing that I could be certain of. I'm damned good at it; even the people who don't like me in the LAPD or the FBI or the DA's office have to admit that. It's who I am; it's how I define myself"

"My problem is that everyone I meet sees the person they want me to be, not the woman I am. My first husband saw a little stay at home wife who'd keep house, be a lady in the kitchen and a good little whore in the bedroom. Pope saw a nice play toy on the side, someone to make up for the fact that his wife was a crabby, evil bitch" I paused to take a sip of wine.

"Fritz saw someone to be happy families with, all white picket fences and kids and keeping a perfect home for him to come home to. None of them saw who and what I was; they all saw who they wanted to see. But that's not me, it never was, I'm my own woman, but they didn't want her, they wanted the woman they thought I was, not who I was, really" Sharon nodded slowly.

"Very few people realise I'm Chief Johnson before I'm Brenda Leigh. Anyone can be Brenda Leigh, but only I can be Chief Johnson" I shook my head a little. "Damn, that sounds stupid, let me try that again"

"What I mean is that it's what I do that defines me, not who I am. Anyone could be a little blonde woman from Atlanta with poor dress sense and a chocolate obsession and a really messy personal history, but only I can be Chief Johnson. Only I can look back at all the people who might have got away with murder except for me, for what I did. I helped make sure they went behind bars because that's what I do and, god help me, it's the one thing I'm very good at" Sharon was utterly still as I laughed, a bitter sound even to my ears.

"I'm a manipulating bitch, a lying cunt, a flouncing whore, a southern slut, trailer park trash, you name it, I've been called it but it doesn't change the fact that not only are they right, but I'd do every last thing the same if I had to, every last decision I've made in my job in the last seven years" Sharon's voice was even and calm, as she asked the question I expected.

"Even Turell Baylor?"

"Even Turell Baylor"

"Why?"

"Because he shot and killed an old man and a young child in cold blood and he would have walked away scot-free. I wanted him to face court, to be convicted and go to jail for life, or rot in San Quentin until the death penalty was carried out, instead Pope gave him a get out of jail free card. Sharon, no matter what may have been the right thing in the eyes of the law, in the eyes of justice, Baylor paid for his crimes"

"That's not really your call Brenda, we're supposed to follow the rules; it's what makes us different from vigilantes, better" Her voice wasn't accusing or judgemental, simply stating the facts.

I sighed, looking down at the table and massaged my temples.

"I know Sharon, I know. Deep down I know your right and I'm wrong, It's why you're so good at your job, you never lose sight of what's right, even though the rest of us lose our perspective, you have to be there to remind us that the only way we should go is the right way" I sighed.

"I just have difficulty in letting the criminal scumbags go. Damn, I sound like Flynn" She chuckled, breaking the tension.

"Andy Flynn has a somewhat hard line view on right and wrong" I looked up at her, raising my eyebrows. She just continued smiling, when I said nothing she gave me a nudge back to the subject at hand. "You were talking about what you wanted Brenda"

"What I want? I suppose I want to be accepted, to have someone who understands what I am, why I do it and why it's so important that I do it well"

My eyes followed an older couple as they stood up and left, their evening coming to a close, heading home after a big night out.

"I need someone who understands that I'm married to the job, that the job is a massive part of who I am and what I am, that I define myself by who and what I am, that I'm not what others want to see" I sighed.

"I suppose I want someone who wants me for being me, not for being someone I'm not"

My eyes flicked back to find Sharon watching me, to anyone else she would look all dispassionate cool regard, but I could see the soft warmth in her eyes. It had taken a long time and I still missed a lot, but I had learned how to read Sharon, at least sometimes.

I sighed again, closing my eyes as I felt like I was opening my soul, but I owed her the truth, god knows she had been open, now it was my turn.

"I want to be held and kissed and told I'm doing the right thing. That the life I have has meaning and that the sacrifices I've made are worth it. That I've traded children and a life of love and commitment for one where I spend my days trying to put people behind bars or on death row and my nights attending scenes of horror and death and loss, to be told that I've made the right choice"

"I go home to an empty apartment, because I'm a workaholic and my husband couldn't handle that, that I wanted the job as much as I wanted him, maybe even more, towards the end. He never understood that I couldn't walk away from it" I paused to wet my lips with my wine.

"I don't want to keep living that life, of having nothing more than work, I want to have more than death and misery and despair, I want someone who will hold me and tell me that yes, I made a difference, who will keep me anchored and sane and stop me from making the wrong decisions because I'm lost in the desire for justice, no matter what"

"I want to have someone who understands me, who understands what my life is and accepts that, so that I can have someone to love back, someone to cling to and tell them I love them and need them and want them, till death do us part" I laughed another bitter sound, even to my ears.

"I should know better than that Sharon; that never works out for me. I've had two tries at it and can't get it right, why should I expect to be lucky the third time? There are times I feel I'll die alone, never finding love again"

I looked back at Sharon, who was openly staring at me, watching me unravel in front of her.

"I want love and tenderness and comfort because my life is full of the antithesis of that. I see death and hate and malice and greed and violence every day and I wonder how I remain sane and unaffected. Some days I'm not sure I am sane" Sharon went to say something but I pressed on.

"We do our jobs Sharon, do them well, but we need more than just our jobs, to keep us sane and whole. We need more than that, surely that's not too much to ask"

Sharon leaned forward, taking my hands in hers.

"No Brenda, it's not too much to ask. We have a right to be happy" I nodded once at her as I savoured the touch of her hands.

"That's what I want Sharon, I want to love and be loved, to have someone special to share my life with. Mind you, that's a shit of a task; just ask anyone I've ever been with. They'll all tell you that I'm impossible, messy, disorganised, incredibly high maintenance, preoccupied with work and generally a pain in the ass" I shook my head as Sharon smiled at me.

"You're not telling me something I don't know Brenda" I smiled back at her.

"I wonder how I lasted this long, being on my own, then I remember that you've had it worse than me for much longer and I feel ashamed for being weak. I'm not as strong as you Sharon, I am in awe of how you manage to keep coming back in day after day, instead of giving up and going somewhere else where you'll be appreciated for the job you do" She smiled softly at me.

"It's what we are, we're police officers, it's our job. Not everyone understands. It's cost me several relationships as well" I looked up, my eyebrows ascending.

Sharon looked down at the table and sighed, as I spotted waiters heading our way with dessert.

Sharon had gone with the sticky toffee pudding with caramelised apples, dates and hibiscus, while I'd naturally gone with the chocolate, Layers of different textured chocolates, providing a kaleidoscope for the taste buds.

We paused until the desserts had been placed and the waiters quietly withdrew, leaving us to our conversation. I realised one of the reasons this place cost so much was the discretion of the staff, they knew when to be there, but more importantly when not to, for which I was extremely grateful and for which I would happily add a decent tip on top of the bill when we left.

We tucked into our desserts which elicited gentle sighs of pleasure, the dinner had been wonderful, but the desserts were heavenly. Finally we slowed down as we realised how richly decadent they were, giving me the opportunity to catch Sharon's eye and raised my eyebrow again.

She looked at me for a moment, as I held her gaze, before she sighed gently and placed her spoon down on the plate.

"I spent almost four years in a relationship with a woman named Brooke after I moved to LA. We met at a conference and hit it off, so we kept in contact and became friends. It moved from friendship to being lovers about three months after we first met"

"What does she do?" Sharon's head tilted at me as she considered my question.

"She's an attorney with the Federal Government, specialising in constitutional law" I had to laugh, which earned me a quizzical look.

"Another lawyer Sharon; honestly what is it with you and lawyers?" Sharon at least had the grace to look a little apologetic.

"She was nice Brenda, we hit it off really well and it felt like it was really right"

"Was she your first?" Sharon looked at me and nodded. "What happened?"

"She was never happy with the fact that I was a cop, that my life could be in danger, that I might have to shoot someone or end up dead. It was always a problem, until the day I went into a tactical situation, kicked in a door on a drug deal and took two slugs into the vest"

I winced, both at the knowledge of how much that would have hurt and how close it must have come to getting her killed.

"Brooke saw the bruising all over my chest and demanded to know what happened. I tried to down play it but she called a colleague at the DAs office and got the full story" Sharon shrugged. "It was the last straw, she couldn't handle the risks of my job and we broke up"

"Sharon, I'm sorry" She smiled sadly at me.

"I know honey, I know" Picking up her spoon, she took another small mouthful of dessert, smiling gently as the taste hit.

We slowly finished our dessert in silence, as I worked over what she had said.

"What made you enter a relationship with Brooke?" It occurred to me that I seemed to be asking variations of that question a lot lately. She shrugged.

"She was a nice person, great fun, pretty, charming, lots of reasons to be attracted to her, I was lonely and willing to take a chance" I nodded very slowly.

"Were you happy?" Sharon paused, the spoon halfway to her mouth, before finishing the morsel and putting the spoon back down.

"Yes I was, although I always knew that there was going to be tension about my job. I pushed that to one side to try and make it work" I knew I shouldn't ask but I did.

"Was that the only time…"

"No"

"Oh"

"Brenda, I won't lie, I enjoy it with both sexes, but that's just scratching the itch. If it was all I wanted I could get it scratched again" She snorted. "If I thought that was all either of us needed I'd take you out with me to a club or two I know of and both of us would wind up waking up tomorrow alongside someone pretty and fun" She flashed me a wicked grin.

"Hell, it'd be funny watching them swarm around you, you're very pretty, sexy when you want to be and that accent will turn on lots of women. They'd probably have catfights working out which one gets to take you home" She shrugged.

"But I don't think that's what either of us really wants, is it?" I shook my head. It surely wasn't what I wanted. I was still taking in her comment about being very pretty and sexy, feeling a tingle inside me at her words.

I looked over at the door, watching the gay guys leaving. Now wasn't that a metaphor; all aboard the gay train, now departing for destinations unknown.

"Sharon, what changed, you and I" She looked down at the table for a moment, examining the remains of her dessert.

"I wanted you. I have for a while, but I knew you were straight, so I didn't act on the attraction. Then I discovered that maybe you weren't as closed to the idea as I first thought"

"Yeah, well that came as a surprise to me too"

"When I realised there might be a chance for us, I decided to see where it might lead. Honestly, I wish I could say that I'd considered all the risks but I'd be lying, I just thought that there might be a chance for us both to be happy, together"

"I have to say, when I first realised what was going on, I was shocked. My first thought was to tell you I wasn't that way, that I wasn't interested at all"

"Why didn't you"

"Because I realised that I needed you as my friend and I couldn't see our friendship surviving that" Sharon's head and shoulders dropped as she stared at her plate.

"I'm sorry Brenda, I truly am" I reached out and rested my hand on hers, forcing her to look up.

"It wasn't your fault Sharon, it was mine"

"How, I was the one who made the move?" I smiled.

"Only because I gave out the wrong signals, if I'd been a little more disciplined I wouldn't have reacted the way I did and made you think I was interested. You must have been interested in me for a while, I simply gave you a green light" Sharon nodded quietly and then looked away, looking at another table

"I had been, I'd found myself interested in you ever since we became friends, but you were straight, so I didn't take it any further. I'm sorry for any pain I've caused you Brenda, I'm sorry, I'm so very sorry" I realised that she was starting to tear up.

"Hey, none of that Sharon, I don't want to sit here and watch you cry, you'll set me off and we can't have that" She nodded stiffly, fighting the tears. She turned to look at me, pulling her hand away from mine, her mouth a tight line as she fought to keep her emotions in check; her voice was low and sad.

"I should go Brenda, thank you for dinner, it was lovely. And thank you for being honest with me"

"I'd rather you not go Sharon, I haven't finished" She looked up at me, I could see the tears in the corners of her eyes and wanted to reach up and wipe them away, take her in my arms and hug her until they all went away. This was my friend, really my best friend and I was hurting her.

"What's to say Brenda" I've been a foolish, selfish bitch and betrayed our friendship. I don't know why you're being so nice about it; I expected, I don't know, a slap in the face or you telling me to get out of your life and never talking to me again"

"That was never going to happen Sharon, you're my friend, my best friend really, I couldn't do that to you, I couldn't do that to myself. I don't have enough friends that I can go jettisoning them willy nilly, you're a part of my life here and I need you in it"

"I'm so very, very sorry Brenda, I really am. I wish that day had never happened, that we weren't having this conversation, that we were still friends" I smiled at her.

"Oh for heaven's sake Sharon, we still are, nothing's changed" I reached out and took her hand in mine.

"There's nothing to forgive or feel sorry for sweetie, but if it helps, I forgive you all your trespasses, forever and ever amen" She looked at me with faint hope in her eyes. I realised how much my friendship meant to her and I ached for the pain she was feeling, the anguish.

"Oh god Brenda, how can you be so nice, after what I did?" I tilted my head at her, watching her closely till she dropped her gaze to focus on our hands, clasped together on the table.

"Sharon, you were lonely and alone and surrounded by four beautiful people who have love and happiness and peace, I can't blame you for wanting that too. It's what we all want"

"In a way I should be thanking you, you're a beautiful woman and to be desired by someone like you was a surprise. Once I got over the whole 'what were you thinking' thing, I was quite flattered" Sharon's cheeks coloured slightly.

"It wasn't hard Brenda; you're a beautiful woman too. People are drawn to that, I was"

"Was that after you got over the whole wanting to strangle me thing?" She smiled gently.

"Oh I thought you were very pretty even then, but I didn't really know you then, I just saw this woman who I fought tooth and nail with, I didn't know you like I do now"

"And somehow, knowing me the way you do now, you still want to be my friend, given how fucked up my life is?" Sharon looked at me, shock on her face.

"Of course I do, if you'll still have me as your friend. My life is no better than yours really" I smiled at her.

"That's not true Sharon, you have two kids who've turned out well and that's something to be truly grateful for"

"I am grateful, they're good kids, I couldn't be prouder of them"

We sat there for a minute, each wrapped up in our thoughts. I saw a waiter heading our way, but he stopped at a sharp look and moved away, giving us time and space.

"Sharon, why did you want me, you could have plenty of other people, why me?" She sighed.

"I wanted someone who I care about, who attracts me, who I could be happy with for the long term, who understands my job and what it means and why I do it. I didn't know anyone else who could be that person. I'm sorry Brenda, I really am"

"So you wanted long term, not just a 'friends with benefits' thing" She shook her head.

"No, that never works out. I wanted more than a one night stand or an affair. I wanted something more"

"How much more?" Her eyes flicked up to mine. "What did you want from me Sharon?" She looked at me and shook her head.

"Are you sure you want to hear this Brenda?" I looked at her calmly and nodded once. Sharon looked uncertain.

"Brenda, I'm ecstatic that we seem to have come out of this with our friendship intact, why do you want to reopen that wound, risk that?"

"Because I want to know the truth, to understand why you were willing to take the chance, what you thought we could have had" She bit her lip for a moment, before leaning back in her seat.

"I wanted you, I wanted you as my friend, my partner, my… lover" He voice was so soft on the last word. She paused for a moment, waiting for me to react, when I didn't, she continued.

"I wanted to try and build a life together, to have someone I respected as my partner, to have someone to come home to, to care for, to share things with, to go to sleep next to you and wake up with you each morning" I nodded slowly, picturing what she had wanted, it sounded wonderful, to not be alone, to have someone to share everything with.

"But why me Sharon? Surely someone who was gay would have been much easier, less likely to react badly, would have understood what you were offering" She shrugged, still watching me carefully.

"I didn't know anyone who was interesting and desirable and who could handle what I do, what we do, for a living. Brooke couldn't, in the end four years went out the door because she couldn't handle what I, what we do. Being a cop is hard Brenda, being the cop who polices the cops is even harder" She shrugged.

"Finding a beautiful woman who can handle that, well that just doesn't happen very often. I wonder if Jane and Anastasia really understand how truly, incredibly lucky they are, to have wonderful women who love them despite the job they do" She looked at me, eyes full of sadness.

"I know I keep saying this Brenda, but I'm so very, deeply sorry. I'm a stupid old woman who let her emotions and loneliness mess things up, who nearly destroyed our friendship and who should have known better." She spread her hands helplessly. "I'm sorry"

"Oh for heaven's sake Sharon, stop apologising. I never told you it was unwelcome did I?" She froze, obviously processing what I'd said.

"What?" Her voice came out strangled and not at all like her normal silky alto.

"I was surprised Sharon, I'd never even thought about it, until you made me think about it" She was stammering now.

"But, but you, you're straight, you're not… you're straight"

"Yes I was, I am, except maybe not as much as I thought I was" Sharon stared at me, her mouth falling open in sheer unadulterated stunned shock at what I was saying. I shrugged, a bit embarrassed at her stare. Mind you, I didn't normally get to rattle the legendary unflappable Commander Raydor calm; deep down inside me a tiny little part of me was jumping up and down in evil glee.

"Like I said, I'd never even considered it. Then you went and shoved it in front of me. Well not really you, it was Natalie and Maura and Jane and Anastasia, they showed me that it's not horrible, they're just lovely people who love each other. The fact they're women is just an accident of biology" Sharon was struggling to reclaim her balance.

"So you weren't angry, you…you actually considered it" I nodded.

"Like I said, once I got past the 'what was Sharon thinking' bit and sat down and considered what was on offer, what you were looking for, well, I won't lie, it scared the hell out of me, still does"

"But" Sharon made a 'keep going' motion with her hand.

"I sat down and was brutally honest with myself; I spent hours sitting and thinking about it, trying to come to a decision about it, you, me, us" Sharon sat perfectly still, waiting on what I had to say.

I sighed, this wasn't easy, but I had to say it.

"Sharon, I think there might be an 'us', you and I, together" Her face was completely rigid, as if she was still taking it all in.

"I won't lie, the thought scares me and I don't think I'm ready yet to fully commit to it, but I want you to know that I could see us together" She slowly closed her eyes and I held my breath, what had I done? I felt my mood suddenly soar as a small, gentle smile appeared on her face

"I'd like that Brenda, I'd like that a lot" I suddenly realised that tears were appearing in her eyes, I could feel them appearing in mine as well. We just sat there for a moment, before she suddenly stood and swept me up to my feet and into a hug. I found myself hugging her and rubbing her back, as she did the same, it felt so very good, standing there, in her arms, whispering reassurance to each other as tears ran down our cheeks.

I don't know how long we stood there, before I realised that everyone was staring at us, or trying too hard not to. Sharon must have felt it too, as she slowly let me go and we stepped back. Looking down with equally embarrassed looks on our faces, we smiled nervously before sitting down again.

I delicately brushed at my eyes, as Sharon smiled at me.

"Your makeups a mess Brenda, mine must be too. Go on to the ladies and freshen up, I'll order coffee and a hot chocolate" I frowned slightly at her.

"What about you?" She laughed gently.

"Honey, after that little display, everyone's watching us, the last thing they need to see is the pair of us disappearing off into the ladies together" I nodded, she made a very valid point. I looked around, noticing lots of eyes darting away as I looked their way, before spotting a waiter watching us discretely from a distance. I nodded gently and he made his way over as I stood up.

"I'll be right back" Sharon smiled at me.

"Don't be too long"

After repairing my makeup, I walked back to the table, relieving Sharon, who made her way to do the same. She returned as our coffee's arrived. I lifted an eyebrow at her.

"Well" She smiled; a playful flash in her eyes.

"Yes, well"

"What now?" She tilted her head to regard me.

"That's entirely up to you Brenda. Tonight's turned out even better that I could have ever hoped. The only thing better would be to take you home…" She held up her hand before I could say anything. "But I know that's too fast, too soon. But I'm more than happy to wait on you"

"Thank you Sharon, I know it's hard on you, but I just have to get myself ready for what is a very big step" She leaned over and caught my hand in hers.

"Brenda honey, I've waited this long, I can wait as long as you need" We smiled warmly at each other, as a feeling of contentment settled over me. This felt right.

"I'm sorry I couldn't come out and say it right away sweetie, but, I needed to talk, to let you know where I was, why my previous relationships failed" She nodded, smiling fondly at me.

"We're a pair Brenda, both of us married to our jobs, wasting away the lives we have outside work. I'd like to face that life with you, together"

"I'd like that too" We sat in a comfortable silence, holding hands and feeling happy. The ringing of my cell phone was the most unwelcome sound I could contemplate right now, so of course it rang. I closed my eyes in real, actual pain as I recognised the LAPD despatch ringtone.

"Oh no" I moaned. Sharon's groan complemented it.

"Answer it honey; you have to" I frowned, staring at my purse. If looks could kill an inanimate object…

Fishing out the phone I saw it was indeed despatch. A short and bitterly unwelcome call later I knew I had to leave. Cutting the call short I saw that Sharon had called for the bill.

"Sorry Sharon, there's been a death, the deputy mayor's son. They want it wrapped up quickly" She nodded as the bill appeared and I fished out my credit card and handed it over.

"Do you want me to come with you?" I smiled, it was tempting.

"Better not, I'll need to keep my mind on the job, which will be hard enough after this, let alone having you there, looking lovely" Sharon smiled at me, a wonderful open smile which only made it harder to go.

"Then let me walk you to your car and promise me you'll call if you need me"

"Always"

We collected my credit card on the way out; I didn't even think to look at the amount as I signed for it, too conscious of the case in front of me and the beautiful woman next to me.

True to her word, Sharon walked me to my car, where I stood there for a second, unsure of what to say. Fortunately Sharon came to my rescue.

"I had a lovely time Brenda, thank you for being so honest with me" I smiled back, happy to see her smile.

"Thank you for being honest with me too Sharon, I know I'm asking you to wait, but I'll get there. I want to get there, I want there to be an us, thank you for being patient"

"Hey honey, when it's something worth waiting for and this good, I'm more than happy to be patient" I smiled, as I felt my cheeks flush.

"Oh, you charmer Sharon" She grinned at me.

"I hope so, I want to charm the pants off you, sometime soon" She laughed at my expression, before leaning in to give me a hug. As we held each other I gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and started to step back, before she grabbed my jacket and held me still.

Before I knew it, she leaned in and gave me a quick but deep kiss on the lips, leaving me shocked and breathless. She tasted of fruit and coffee and something else, something lovely. Finally, after what felt like minutes but must have only been a few seconds, she stepped back.

I just stood there frozen in the position she had left me, certain I had a stunned expression on my face.

"Consider that a taste of things to come Brenda. But don't make me wait too long, it's going to be hard enough as is" I licked my lips, tasting her again, before leaning in and grabbing her and pulling her in again.

This was only a few seconds as well, but it was wonderful, I felt my heart race and my breath panting as we broke away. Sharon looked lovely, all flushed and heated.

"Wow" I realised that it was my voice. She smiled at me.

"Wow indeed"

"Sharon…" She stepped back, shaking her head.

"Go Brenda, you have a job to do, go before I do that again" I growled, before turning to open up the car. Looking over my shoulder I saw her smiling at me.

"Can I call you?" She laughed happily.

"Anytime you want, for as long as you want"

"Thank you Sharon, I've got to go"

"Call me soon"

"Bye Sharon"

"Bye Brenda"

The last thing I saw as I drove off was Sharon, standing there in the car park, watching after me.

I had to fight the urge to turn around and go back. Damn it to hell.

Brenda Leigh wanted to stay, but Chief Johnson had a job to do.


	58. Chapter 58

**The girls go clubbing Part 1**

Jane's viewpoint

Maura was up to something, aided and abetted by Natalie. That girl was a very bad influence, I was sure of it.

We were going Saturday night clubbing. I didn't mind that, I like to dance, but the girls had been planning something all week. Twice this week Maura had begged off on lunch, claiming she had to do something. When I asked her she just smiled and said the magic word, 'shopping'.

Maura didn't normally keep secrets, but several times I caught her looking at me with an almost predatory gleam in her eye. When I asked her what she was thinking, she'd tell me I'd find out all in good time, or that patience was a virtue that I should learn to practice.

Maura may not be able to lie but she could be really good at evasion when she wanted.

Natalie and Ana had arrived almost an hour ago and after a cup of coffee and a catch up, Nat and Maura had disappeared into the main bedroom, taking with them several shopping bags.

I looked over towards Ana who was washing up her cup in the sink.

"Do you know what's going on tonight Ana? This is a lot of sneaking around for a night dancing"

"Yeah, I think so, Natalie's been behaving like she has ants in her pants all day and couldn't wait to come over, so I think they have something special planned for tonight" Catching my somewhat uncertain look, she smiled. "Don't worry, it normally means that the night's going to be something to remember, at least that's what happens when Natalie occasionally does something like this"

"It's just this is kind of out of character for Maura"

"Hanging round with Natalie will do that. She changed me a lot after we got together"

"Oh, how so?"

"She didn't try to; it's just that being wrapped up in her world made me a happier, more outgoing person" She paused. "I used to be a lot less open, a lot more suspicious; I'd been hurt and was cautious about who I opened up to. Natalie changed that, for the better" I nodded slowly.

"People back home kept telling me that Maura was a good influence on me, that I was happier and a lot more relaxed since I met her and that was before we became a couple. Since then, well I've never been this happy, ever" She smiled.

"Well Maura and Natalie are good for us. They make us happy, if that means we put up with their games from time to time, well that's a price I'm happy to pay. Besides, it's usually well worth it"

"You're sure about that?"

"Absolutely" I nodded, maybe she was right, besides it's not like I could back out now.

Five minutes later I was reconsidering that statement.

I was looking at the shopping bag of clothes that Ana had brought with her, laying out on the guest bed, looking at exactly how little actually cloth there was in the whole outfit. Apparently Maura and Natalie had been busy, not only had they bought new outfits for tonight for themselves, but for Ana and I as well.

"She can't be serious" I called out to the adjoining bathroom, where Ana was getting changed.

"Why? What's wrong?'

"I can't wear this" Her head popped around the door, one eyebrow arched.

"What's wrong with it?"

"This barely qualifies as clothing; I've seen street hookers wearing more than this" Ana stepped into the doorway, dressed in a mismatched set of underwear as she changed. Her briefs were practical cotton boy shorts; while the bra was something all black lace and satin. I tried not to look; she had a wickedly curvaceous body, almost as good as Maura's.

"It's club wear, it's supposed to show off your best assets on the dance floor, plus let you stay cool while you look hot" I shook my head, as I picked up the skirt, appalled at exactly how short it was. In leather!

"I've seen tissues that have more material than this" She laughed at the expression on my face.

"Hey, it's not like you have a choice. You wimp out and you'll have to deal with a really upset Maura, and Natalie" I winced, she was playing dirty. I bit my lip as I looked at the skimpy top lying on the bed.

"Besides, they want us to look hot and I'm sure they'll look amazing, so don't think about it, just do it" I sighed, Ana was right, I wasn't going to win this one. I started to pull my T-shirt off when I noticed Ana was still looking at me. I blushed, before waving her away.

"Go on, get dressed, If I have to make a spectacle of myself, at least let me do it in private" She grinned, nodded and ducked back into the bathroom.

"Oh God, kill me now" I breathed. It was worse than I thought. The black leather skirt barely reached past my ass, I knew I'd have to be careful or I'd be flashing everyone all night. The top was some sort of sheer silvery mesh that barely made it to the top of the skirt while the bra and G-string set underneath was a match for the ones I'd seen Anastasia wearing.

The final straw was the heels; black leather ankle boots that had a gold zip running up the length of the four inch stiletto heel and then up the back of the shoe. How the hell was I going to dance in these all night?

I was looking at the mirror, appalled at how much skin was showing, when I heard a long low whistle from the bathroom door.

"Holy shit Jane, you look…"

"Ridiculous. The word you're looking for is ridiculous" I felt so embarrassed, I just stared at the reflection. "I can't go out like this"

"And why the hell not; damn, if I had legs like yours I'd be wearing a lot more short skirts. Maura told Nat that they were amazing, your girl has a talent for understatement" I looked up, blushing. Then I saw what she was wearing and I felt my jaw drop.

She was wearing a black leather bustier which highlighted her breasts. Her rather nice ones I had to admit. The skirt was also black leather and was if anything slightly shorter than mine. She was wearing black patent leather stilettoes, silver drop earrings and her heavy makeup and teased hair had completely changed her look. The crisp, efficient FBI agent had gone, replaced by a smoky sex bomb. I gulped, she was stunning and sexy and I could feel myself appreciating what I saw.

"You look…" I searched for the right word.

"Ridiculous?" she offered. I shook my head.

"Amazing" She smiled happily.

"Thank you, so do you"

"I look like a high class hooker"

"Bullshit. High class hookers don't look that good. Maura had better keep you handcuffed to her all night, cause you're sure as hell going to get hit on" I looked down at the floor. Embarrassed at the praise, my insecurities came rushing back in.

""I'm not sure about this Ana" She walked straight over to me, laying her hands on my shoulders, forcing me to look up at her.

"Of course you are, you look good enough to eat and we haven't even done your make up yet. Maura is going to be so happy and Nat, well she'll be ecstatic"

"Why?"

"Because both of her friends look stunning, that they're happy and in love and we get to spend time with you both. We're both really happy we met you, knowing you both, being your friends and being with you, it makes us both happy. Hopefully you feel the same." I nodded slowly, realising that we had managed to find some really, really good friends in Ana and Natalie.

"Besides I told you, with Natalie it's all in, no holding back" She shrugged, "Me too" I couldn't help myself, I reached out dragged her into a hug, which she returned enthusiastically. We stood there for a moment before I stepped back., reverting to the typical Rizzoli response to feelings, sarcasm and humour.

"Well someone needs to hold me, cause I'm likely to go ass over tits in these shoes and that means flashing the whole club. I can't believe I agreed to this" Ana laughed at my expression.

"Jane, you could no more refuse Maura than I could Natalie, no matter what they asked" I shook my head ruefully.

"We are SO whipped" We laughed together.

"Someone told me once that when the hand holding the whip is that pretty, who cares" I nodded. She turned me towards the bathroom.

"C'mon, let's get your makeup done, besides, I'm dying to see what the girls are wearing"

"Probably something classier than this, Maura isn't big on lots of skin" Ana snorted as we walked to the bathroom.

"We'll see, Natalie will have been a big influence on what they're wearing"

"Oh god, that girl is a bad influence" I moaned. Picking up a makeup brush Ana turned to me.

"Of course she is and you love it. Now sit down and let me fix this, the faster we do this the sooner we see them"

A few minutes later, I was standing in the living area; anxiously looking to the hallway to the main bedroom; seeing my fidgeting Ana looked at her watch before calling out.

"C'mon girls, what's taking so long?" Natalie's voice echoed back down the hall.

"Were almost ready, hold your horses" I looked at Ana.

"I can't believe that I'm doing this, going out in public, in this get up, wearing heels that will probably break my ankle. God I hope no one from work sees me"

"Hey, I didn't dress like this before I met Natalie, she's not body conscious at all and she's a believer in the theory that if you have it, you flaunt it"

"I feel like I'm flaunting everything in this" I muttered. She tilted her head to one side.

"Yeah, you are. Good thing you've got it to flaunt it" I was about to say something when I heard the clonking of high heels on floorboards coming down the hall. We both turned, to see Nat walk in and lean against the door jamb. I felt my eyes widen as I took her in.

She was wearing an electric blue dress that covered more than I was wearing, but it was so tight it left almost nothing to the imagination. It was shiny, like latex or vinyl, with the lights reflecting in the material and hugging every curve like paint. As I ran my eyes down her bare, tanned legs, I saw she was wearing strappy platform heels made out of some transparent material with what had to be at least five inch heels.

She smiled at us both, her eyes running over me in an almost possessive manner, before she turned and took in Ana. I watched her eyes widen, then narrow in appreciation of what she was seeing, as her eyes ran up and down over Ana's curvaceous body, taking in how the leather packaged her up so erotically. For a moment I felt incredibly jealous for her.

"Is this… acceptable?" I just nodded, as Ana licked her lips. Eventually she found her voice, a very husky voice.

"Oh yeah, very" Natalie smiled even wider.

"Good, Maura thought it might be a little, over the top" I just drank her in, she normally looked great, but right now she was absolutely stunning. I coughed, to cover the fact that I was staring.

"No, you look well… fantastic Nat" Damn, my voice sounded different, deeper. I realised her appearance was affecting me, she was turning me on and her partner was standing right next to me.

"I'm glad you approve Jane, because Maura wanted to be sure you liked this on me. That way she'd know you'd like what she's wearing" With that she reached around the corner and led Maura into view by the hand.

I felt my jaw drop as a rush of heat shook me, dwarfing whatever I had felt for Natalie.

She was wearing a dress similar to Natalie's, only red, with a zipper running blatantly down the front, pulled down far enough to leave the valley between her breasts plainly visible. It hugged her like a second skin, probably some vinyl or latex material, emphasising her lush curves. On her feet was a pair of ridiculously high heels, all black straps and metal heels which did the most wonderful things to her legs. Smiling shyly, as Natalie held her hand above her head; Maura pirouetted slowly in front of me, letting me see all of her.

I swallowed into a suddenly dry mouth. That dress emphasised her ass in the best way imaginable, in fact she looked hotter than I had ever seen her before, at least with clothes on.

I realised I still hadn't said anything as Maura completed the turn to face me, but as she looked at me I understood I didn't have to, she knew immediately what seeing her like that had done to me. She must have seen the pure raw lust and desire in my eyes, as she swallowed and any nervousness disappeared.

It was Natalie who broke the silence.

"I take it you approve Jane" I nodded, just staring at Maura. I could hear the smirk in Ana's voice.

"I think she does" Ignoring them, I took several steps towards Maura as she walked forward into my arms; I just wrapped myself around her and plastered my mouth over hers, as her tongue forced its way into mine. I was sure I could feel her heart hammering, mine was going like a jackhammer and I felt dizzy.

Eventually, finally, reluctantly we had to break for air. As we did I realised that our audience were grinning like idiots at our blatant display.

"What?" I demanded, although the effect was somewhat ruined by the husky tone in my voice and the stupid grin on my face. Anastasia started laughing while Nat smirked.

"I think that outfits a keeper Maura" Stepping back, I looked at Maura again, marvelling at how beautiful she was, how incredibly lucky I was to have her in my life. She looked back at me with a small smile, like the cat that'd got the cream.

"I like your outfit Jane, you look amazing" I felt myself blush.

"Babe, you look, my god, your incredible" She tipped her head to one side.

"You think so?" I looked at her, slowly, from head to toe then leaned in close to whisper.

"You know exactly what you're doing to me in that outfit" She turned to whisper in my ear.

"That I do, you're doing exactly the same to me" I breathed in, taking in her scent; perfume and Maura, it was a heady combination. "I don't think we're the only ones who're going to have a big night tonight" She nodded to my right.

I turned to see Nat and Ana blatantly making out by the door, their hands wandering unashamedly.

I groaned softly. It was hard enough to not give in to my first impulse, which was to drag Maura back into the bedroom and ravish her all night, without seeing the incredibly erotic sight of two stunning women passionately kissing not three feet from us.

"Ahem" Nothing happened. "Ahem!" At the second reminder they pulled back far enough to look at us, their arms around each other's waist, their faces flushed, panting slightly. It was obvious I wasn't the only one who could think of alternative plans for the night.

Finally Natalie managed to collect herself well enough to speak.

"Yes, yes, your right, we should be going, I'll call a cab".


	59. Chapter 59

**The girls go clubbing Part 2**

Maura's viewpoint

The ride to the club was an exercise in self-restraint. All I wanted to do was bury myself in Jane's arms; she looked amazing; so unlike the practical Jane I saw most days. She looked good enough to eat and I was determined to gorge myself on every inch of her before the night was over.

I could see that I wasn't the only ones struggling; Natalie and Anastasia were constantly touching each other, little touches that made them shiver and which I found both incredibly erotic and endearing. They had been together for longer than we had, but were obviously as deeply in love as we were.

Natalie caught my eye and winked conspiratorially, tonight had worked out just as she had suggested it would. The look on Jane's face when I stepped into her view had said it all, naked desire, lust and longing. I shivered, feeling that same heat as I ran my eyes up her incredible legs and oh so short skirt. It promised easy access and I intended to make the most of that access tonight.

After a too long ride, the cab dropped us at a nightclub called the Intersection. It was apparently one of LA's hottest ladies-only nightclubs. Dinner then dancing for the rest of the night; my incredible lover and our best friends here in LA by our side, this was going to be an amazing night.

As we walked up to the door I saw a line waiting to get in and for a moment I faltered, I didn't want to wait, I wanted our night to happen now. Without a word Natalie led us straight up to the door past the line and the waiting patrons, as we left a trail of whistles and catcalls behind us.

The two security people on the door, a massive black man who seemed to be a rolling mountain of muscle, and a smaller red-haired woman with an enviable physique smiled as we stepped up. The man cocked his head at us and spoke.

"Ladies, welcome to The Intersection, how are we tonight" Natalie, obviously an old hand at charming her way into nightclubs grinned.

"Good now and better soon I hope"

"Of course it will be, please enjoy your first night with us" I frowned.

"How did you know it was our first visit?" They laughed as the redhead spoke, with a distinct Dublin accent.

"Are you kidding, we'd remember you if you'd been here before" Her eyes ran over all of us, clearly liking what she saw. "I'm Ailing, this is Cletus; can I give you all a piece of advice" We nodded.

"Keep your partners close tonight, this place is full of sharks and you are some of the prettiest shark bait I've ever seen" Natalie reached out and linked her arms though Anastasia's and Jane's, pulling us close together.

"Thanks, but we brought our own Great Whites here tonight"

They stepped aside to let us through.

"As you wish, have a great night" Natalie grinned back at them as we moved inside.

"Thanks, we intend to"

Inside the ground floor was a mostly full mass of women, many out on the dance floor, illuminated by strobes and lasers as they danced to a deep base beat. Ana grabbed my hand and led me to one side as I pulled Jane in tow, yelling to be heard over the music.

"The restaurant is downstairs, bars upstairs" I nodded and turned to see Jane looking around with delight, she loved to dance.

We made our way downstairs, through several sets of heavy doors which blocked more and more of the music as we passed through, into a stylishly decorated basement restaurant. The comparative quiet as we entered the restaurant was a shock after the pounding beat above us.

The female maître d' smiled as we approached; obviously we more than met their standards, leading us to our table.

As we walked over and settled, I noticed that we were the centre of attention for at least a dozen people, maybe more. I wasn't the only one to notice. Jane leaned in to me as we sat.

"Shark bait indeed"

Dinner was good, not great, but the company more than made up for it. The drinks, stories and reminiscences flowed through three courses, but I could tell everyone was anxious to get on the dance floor and work off some of the nervous (and sexual) tension that we all felt. Jane finally stood up, pulling me with her.

"C'mon guys, lets hit the floor, I've got to dance and I wanna show off the prettiest woman here" I blushed, as Anastasia smiled lazily and wrapped an arm around Natalie.

"I might have to disagree with my esteemed LAPD colleague, as I think I have the prettiest woman right here" Natalie coloured slightly as Jane laughed and I found myself grinning, talk about competitive...

The dance floor was if anything even louder than when we arrived, but there was still room on the floor for us. We danced for over an hour, our body's close, before we stepped off the floor, heading upstairs to the bar to get a drink and cool down. Fortunately the noise here was bearable, with plenty of tables and booths lining the walls. Most of those were taken, with a lot of couples taking advantage of the dimmer lighting at the back to get passionate.

No sooner had Jane strolled off to get our drinks than an intense blonde walked over to the table and sat down.

"HI, I don't recall seeing you here before and I'd remember you if we met. I'm Keira" I smiled politely and turned partly to face her.

"Hello Keira, I'm Maura. These are my friends Natalie and Anastasia and you're sitting in my girlfriend's seat" Not missing a beat, and completely ignoring the warning, Keira leaned towards me and smiled, holding her hand out and running her eyes over me.

"That's ok, I'm only asking for a dance, at least that's all I want right now" I felt the smile fall off my face as she persisted despite being politely told no. Before I could say anything Anastasia leant over, her voice lightly mocking.

"What Maura is politely trying to tell you Keira, is that you don't meet her, or our, standards. Now you can take the polite hint and leave, or you can stay here and get your ass kicked by Jane when she gets back, unless I decide to do it first" She gently smiled as she leaned back, watching Keira closely.

Keira frowned as she sized up Anastasia, obviously realising that she was quite confident of being able to deal with Keira if it came to that.

"Fine, no need to get hostile; hey baby, you change your mind, I'll be around" She got up and left as I saw Jane making her way through the crowd carrying our drinks, a frown on her face as she saw Keira walk away.

"Who was that?" I leaned in and kissed her cheek.

"Someone who was persistent" Natalie laughed.

"A wannabe shark, took one look at Ana's teeth and left quickly"

Anastasia laughed and Jane smiled, as she looked around to see if Keira was anywhere near. Natalie leaned in and spoke quietly.

"She may have been the first, but she won't be the last tonight"

Over the next three hours Natalie's prediction was proven right, as each of us found ourselves being hit on regularly, some were polite, some blatant, one or two obnoxiously persistent.

Mostly they backed off when challenged, although one woman who wouldn't leave Natalie alone ended up being asked to leave after she refused to take no for an answer. Cletus came in response to a call from the bar, to find the woman face down on the floor with Jane holding her hands behind her back. He lifted her up off the floor, dusted her off and told her she had 60 seconds to get out, or he would throw her out.

She was shocked when her threat to call the police and press assault charges saw us laugh in her face. Jane leaned in to Cletus and obviously told him we were LAPD, as he told the woman that she was very close to being permanently barred from the club,. She either called it a night and left, or she could be thrown out, never to return. Fortunately she left, without making a bigger scene.

We returned to the dance floor several times during the night, working off the tension and thoroughly enjoying our night, at least there we were left alone. I watched Natalie and Anastasia together as they moved together; they looked good dancing close and moved as one on the floor.

It was getting late as Jane headed off to the bar to get our final round. I noticed the crowd had thinned out a lot, so accompanied by Ana I visited the bathroom. We had already noticed that there was safety in numbers, as Jane and Natalie had both been accosted in there earlier.

A few minutes later, as we made our way back to our seats, I saw that Natalie wasn't there. Looking around I saw her striding towards the bar, where an attractive, vaguely familiar bottle blonde woman was standing in front of Jane, trapping her against the bar and locked in an obviously heated conversation with her. I grabbed Anastasia's arm and indicated the scene at the bar.

"Looks like there may be trouble" She nodded. A small crowd was watching, including what were obviously several of the blonde's entourage.

"Shit yeah, Nat's wearing her 'don't piss me off' expression"

As we approached, I saw the blonde, who I recognised as some minor Hollywood actress, reach out and stroke Jane's arm. She might have missed it but I could tell that Jane was seconds from ripping her arm off, but was desperately trying to restrain herself. I saw Anastasia catch the bartender's eye and mimic dialling a call, she nodded and picked up a phone.

That's when Natalie stalked up, slid her arm around Jane's waist and leaned over to kiss her on the neck, before wrapping herself against Jane in an obviously possessive move. Jane had looked surprised for a moment but obviously Natalie had whispered something to her as she relaxed a fraction.

The actress looked incredibly irritated and I heard her demand to know who Natalie was.

As Jane automatically snuggled her arm around Natalie's waist Natalie smiled at her, before turning her attention to the interloper. Her voice rang out over the watching hush.

"I'm the one telling you to get your paws off my girlfriend, she's not interested in you and neither am I" Catching sight of us approaching Natalie's smile widened. "I'm actually doing you a favour; I'm the peacemaker, not like the rest of our partners, who are a lot less forgiving than me"

"What the hell do you mean? Forgiving""

Seeing what Natalie was doing, and wanting to calm Jane, I stepped up and slid my arm around her waist, just above Natalie's arm, as I leaned in to kiss Jane full on the lips. Feeling her respond, I dragged it out for a second or two, feeling Jane's arm slide around my waist, pulling me in close before I pulled back and stared down the insufferable woman in front of us.

"What she means is that you don't have to worry about her, you have to worry about me"

I felt Anastasia step up beside me and slide her arm around my shoulders and leaning her head against mine, the four of us a tight knot facing the woman.

"You? Do you have any idea who I am?" I heard Jane and Anastasia both laugh, while Natalie smirked nastily at her.

"Did you really say that, oh my god, that's pathetic" Her voice changed to a nasal whine "Do you know who I am? Oh please?"

I smiled at the blonde as I spoke, dragging her shocked attention away from Natalie.

"You are a third rate actress and second rate celebrity as I understand it, trading on the fact that you're a lesbian to generate some celebrity value as your career has stalled. Your numerous drug and DUI convictions make an interesting footnote to the ongoing train wreck that your so-called career has become" I saw her eyes widen in shock. Before she could respond I spoke again.

"Not to mention the obvious symptoms of cocaine addiction that you're showing every sign of, such as the dilated pupils, the weight loss and the hyperactivity. It does go a long way to explain your diminished status amongst your peers and the refusal of studio's to employ you"

"Who the hell are you to talk to me like that bitch?" I thought she was going to try and hit me when Jane spoke.

"She's my girlfriend, someone with more class in her little finger than you have in your entire shitty life, so why don't you take the hint and leave, before you get hurt"

"Fuck you" The expression on her face was sheer ugliness. I noticed however that many of the people watching were grinning at her predicament; obviously she wasn't a particularly welcome presence here.

Jane smiled at her, hugging Natalie and I closer to her.

"Thanks for the offer, but I have so many much better options right here" Anastasia laughed at her furious expression, diverting her from Jane.

"Besides, we don't pick up crack whores, you can never tell where they've been, or the nasty shit they're carrying" Anastasia turned her head to kiss my neck, making me shiver before continuing. "Anyway, I'm down to my last $20 note and I'm saving that for a cab, not you, besides I doubt your worth a $10 tip"

"I don't care who you are bitch, no one talks to me like that" I saw her throw her hand back to swing at us when Ailing's hand closed around it, stopping her dead.

"Ow, let me go!" Ailing frowned at her.

"I don't think so miss. I believe you should leave before anything happens that might involve the police" She released her hand, watching her closely. I shouldn't have said anything, but couldn't resist.

"I believe that the liberal terms of your current parole status would cease if a charge was laid, particularly a drug-related one"

She looked at me, sneering, trying to regain the upper hand.

"You'd call the police? You weak cunt!" I smiled turning to Jane.

"Yes I would, wouldn't I, Detective" The blood drained from her face.

"You, you're a cop?" I could hear the disbelief in her voice, as she took in the stunning woman in front of her.

Anastasia leaned into me and smiled broadly as she pulled her badge out of her purse, letting her see it.

"We all are, now you can leave or we can wait for a black and white to arrive and check you and your friend's bags for cocaine" At that I saw the faces of her entourage go white with fear. They grabbed at her and started to pull her away as we stood there.

Natalie smiled wickedly and spoke loudly enough to be heard by the watching crowd.

"Baby, let's go home, I'm tired and want to go to bed" Jane laughed softly, hugging us both.

"Sure thing babe"

Deciding to spin it out a little longer, I looked at Anastasia.

"Take me home sweetie, Im done dancing, I have other things I want to do" She just grinned before hugging me close.

"Then lets get out of here"

The look on the actresses face was priceless, as her companions pulled her away.

I looked to Ailing, who was watching us closely.

"You lot are all involved?" Anastasia nodded.

"Jane and Maura here are a couple, Nat and I are as well" She sighed.

"So you're not an open relationship thing" I shook my head.

"No, just good friends" Aisling started chuckling as she shook her head.

"Damn, I was going to ask if you had any vacancies open" We all started laughing, the tension bleeding off. "You ladies need a cab ride home right? I'll call one for you"

We nodded and walked to the stairs, ignoring the venomous stares from the actress and her cronies as we left, but catching a few nods of thanks from other patrons as we passed. I gathered she wasn't a popular patron.

Natalie leaned past Jane and whispered to me.

"Shit Maura; that was awesome. I was going to tear strips off her, but you were clinically cold and brutal. Remind me never to piss you off" I smiled at her.

"No chance of that, besides, I need to thank you for coming to Jane's aid" She laughed happily.

"Well, you would have done it but weren't there, so it was the least I could do. Hope I didn't startle you Jane"

Jane looked down at her, where she was still held in close to her side.

"It did surprise me for a moment, but thanks for the save"

Anastasia swapped sides, looping her arm around Natalie as we reached the stairs.

Jane suddenly laughed, wrapping her arms around me and lifting me up to spin around, my feet swinging as I was held in her strong arms. Finally she put me down and leaned in for a deep kiss, full of promise. Finally breaking the contact, she looked over at our friends.

"Well that was a fun night, what are we doing next week""


	60. Chapter 60

**The girls go clubbing Part 3**

Maura's viewpoint

The ride back home was a blur; we spent the entire trip in each other's arms, kissing, touching and feeling. Natalie and Anastasia were no better, doing the same next to us.

I have no idea what the driver thought, although if he was like most men he probably found attractive women a turn on and attractive lesbians even more so. The adult erotic industry certainly made enough money pandering to that particular demographic.

Listening to the sounds we were making, I fleetingly wondered if we were risking a traffic accident, before Jane's tongue started worrying at my earlobe while her hand drew maddening patterns on the inside of my thigh, driving much thought of anything else out of my mind.

The trip eventually came to a halt and we stumbled up the step to the door, with everyone impatiently waiting as I fished keys out of my clutch. Inside, Natalie and Anastasia gave us both a tight hug and kisses, making me very aware of how aroused I was as I felt their heated bodies in my arms and became very aware of their scents.

While were hugging Natalie leaned in and kissed me on the cheek, while whispering in my ear.

"Don't forget our bet" Stepping back she gave me the most wickedly sexy grin before they strode off to the guest bedroom, arms wrapped around one another.

Jane looked at me through hooded eyes, obviously well primed and ready to go. She started to undo her heels when I stopped her.

"No, keep them on" She looked the question at me and I smiled, letting my voice show some of the arousal I was feeling course through me.

"I've been watching you all night and I like what they do to your legs…" I let my eyes trail down over her body to her feet and then slowly back up to her eyes again. "…and your glutes so keep them on" I watched her lick her lips slowly, her dark eyes growing even darker with lust.

Grabbing her hand I eagerly led her to our bedroom where I had barely closed the door when I was slammed back against it, Jane's hands in my hair and on my hip, her tongue demanding entrance, her body pressed hard against mine. I could feel her need, a long night's build up had kept her simmering just off the boil and she was now ready to explode. I moaned and heard her doing the same.

It would be so tempting to just give in, to let Jane ravish me the way she did so completely, leaving me a shattered wreck on the bed, but I couldn't do that, not tonight. Tonight I had other plans.

Pushing her away, with difficulty, I smiled at the needy expression on her face. She wanted this as much as I did. I was equally hot but tonight was my turn to make Jane break apart.

"No Jane, I want you, I want you all"

"I want you too Maura, god I've wanted you so bad, ever since you walked out dressed like that, Oh god I want you" Her voice was a low moan, filled with need and hunger.

I reached out, caressing her cheek and she leaned into my touch.

"Soon darling, very soon, but first, I get to play with you" I saw her eyes widen, realising that she was in for a ride tonight, that I was in the mood for games.

"Stand still Jane, close your eyes and let me look at you" I slowly prowled around her, examining her as if for the first time.

"My darling Jane, when I first saw you in that skirt, all I could think about was how amazing you looked, how simply edible you were" I practically purred 'edible' and she shivered. Oh yes, Jane was so primed and ready. "In fact it took all my willpower to not eat you up then and there"

I ran my hand across her shoulder, feeling her tremble slightly at my touch as she stood there, her eyes closed, listening to me.

"So strong, so sexy, so wonderfully packaged. I knew when Natalie and I picked out that outfit for you, that I would want you so badly"

Stopping behind her, I leaned in to whisper close to her ear.

"And that skirt, just made to give me easy access" I saw her head jerk slightly at my nearness.

"And trust me, access is what I want. What I need. What I crave" I leaned back and stepped away, seeing her head turn slightly to follow the sounds of my footsteps.

"You know I love those legs of yours, so long, so strong and so very sexy. I wanted to feel them, fell them wrapped around me, to run my fingers and tongue up them, to feel them shake with need when I grind my wet pussy into your thigh" She was absolutely still, my words painting pictures her mind could easily see.

"You are so incredibly hot Jane, I ache for you, I want to give in to you tonight, let you hold me, make love to me" I leaned in close to her ear again and whispered. "I want to let you fuck me Jane, all night" I could she her trembling as I pulled back.

Jane had confessed not long after we became lovers that my voice turned her on, always had and never more so when I spoke dirty. Before then she had only seen the public side of me, not knowing that I like to talk dirty to my lovers. To say she had been surprised that first night we made love would have been an understatement; surprised and oh so very excited.

I was now using that same power over her tonight and I could see that it was having its usual effect, if anything amplified by the night's activities. Her reply was low and hungry.

"Yes…"

"But that's not what's going to happen tonight Jane. No, tonight I am going to fuck you, fuck you senseless" I commenced walking around her once again.

"The only question is which way should I do that? Should I tie you down to the bed and eat you until you scream?" I allowed my hand to ghost over a bicep, seeing her jerk slightly from my unexpected touch.

Should I get out that big double dildo and shove it in so far that we can feel each other as we grind our clits out together?" Her tongue wet her suddenly dry lips; she was so obviously aroused, poor dear. I was so enjoying turning her on like this using only my voice, which gave me another idea.

"I could just tell you what I'd like to do to you, just describing what we would do, how much you would like it, pour filthy words and thoughts into your ear while I play with your nipples until you come?" Her teeth started chewing on her lower lip, oh god she wanted me, needed me. It was such an amazing turn on, to know that such a strong, confident woman would willingly give herself to me so freely.

"Perhaps I should whip that ass of yours until it's nice and red, then finger fuck you till you come all over my fingers" I reached out again, running the back of my hand across her cheek, feeling her lean in, desperate for the contact.

"Should I get you on your knees, get our strap-on and fuck you in the ass till you're too sore to walk?" I heard a slight moan escape her mouth as I spoke. Stepping away, I continued strolling around her.

"If you're very good for me my darling, I might ride your mouth till you make me come" I stopped for a moment, standing in front of her.

"Whatever I do I really should leave you marked Jane, I might just leave bite marks all over you, to remind that bitch back at the club and anyone else who might want you that you belong to me"

"Would you like me to bite you Jane; to let everyone see that you're mine?" Her voice was a low whisper.

"Yes" I smiled. Jane was ready for me, oh god she was ready.

"Do you have any idea what's happening in our guest bedroom right now Jane?" I saw her head come up, surprised by the question. "Let me tell you"

I leaned in close to her ear.

"Natalie is going to fuck Anastasia raw tonight; she is going to make her scream out Natalie's name loud enough for us to hear" I saw her swallow, obviously visualising the scene only a few rooms away.

"And how do I know that Jane? She told me. While you and Anastasia were dancing, she told me that she was going to make Anastasia scream" I stepped back and walked behind her, leaning in to whisper in her other ear.

""And I told her that was fine, because I was going to make you scream even louder. You were going to scream my name till you were hoarse, so that they could hear you and know you were mine"

Poor Jane was practically humming and I was teasing her unmercifully.

"So you see my darling, tonight is not just about me making you come, it's about making you scream"

"Oh my God Maura, please…." Her eyes still squeezed shut; Jane's voice was pure, raw desperate need. I smiled.

"Tell me what you want Jane. What do you want me to do to you?"

"Make me scream Maura, please. Oh God... I need it" Her voice was raw with desire and lust and need and longing and want.

Deep down, I was so inordinately pleased. No one ever saw Jane like this, so raw, so vulnerable. The rest of the world saw the bad ass detective; a very fortunate few saw the relaxed and happy woman, but only I saw Jane like this, the lover who gave herself so completely to me.

She was ready, and so was I, I could feel my panties were absolutely drenched, liquid desire making its way gently down my inner thighs, and I knew Jane was if anything even worse.

"Get up against the wall Jane, hands out and legs spread" Her eyes opened to stare at me, her normally brown eyes dark pools. I swallowed; the naked lust in her eyes almost made me give in to her, to let her have her way with me. With effort I took control again.

"Up against the wall Jane, now"

She smiled slowly at me, obviously aware that this wasn't that easy for me either, before slowly walking to the wall, placing her hands at chest height and spreading her legs shoulder width apart, before looking over her shoulder at me, hunger visible in her eyes.

I sauntered in her direction, smiling playfully as I approached.

"Why Detective Rizzoli, that's a very weak stance you have there, I'm sure you'd make certain a suspect was a lot more spread than that before you searched them, wouldn't you?"

Stepping up behind her I gently slapped the inside of one thigh with the back of my hand.

"Spread them Jane, wide" Biting her lip, she complied, placing her feet as wide as her skirt would let her.

"That's better, but not quite right darling" I used my hands on her hips to pull them back towards me, making her take small steps to keep her balance. When I stopped, she was bent over, her ass jutting out, placing her on display.

I stepped back for a moment, admiring those wonderful long legs oh so widely planted, the high heels making her calves even more defined than normal, the thighs making a V leading to her ass, which in this position was stretching the leather tight across her butt and leaving her panties easily visible.

"Much better, now place your forehead against the wall Jane, and hold on tight"

Swallowing, she looked back at me, before slowly complying.

I stepped up against her, letting my hips bump up against her butt as I leaned forward, my breasts on her back, to breathe softly into her ear.

"I've been looking forward to this all night darling. The moment I saw you I wanted you with your ass where I could get to it. I told you that skirt gave me access and now I'm going to use it" I slid both hands around her waist, then slowly up underneath the top, over the gently raised scar tissue on her torso and up to her softly encased breasts.

I could feel her nipples jutting through the lace, pressing urgently into my palms. I gently let my fingers tease them, hearing Jane gasp, before I let them slide away. That would be fun, but I wanted to make her lose control.

Holding her hips again, I leaned in even more against her, knowing she could feel my own rock hard nipples through the material of my dress, pressing into her back, as I spoke into her ear.

"Remember Jane, we have an audience, so don't hold back" As she nodded shakily, I leaned in and gently bit her earlobe, making her yelp in surprise and need. I smirked.

"That's a good start darling, but you'll have to do much better. And I did tell you I was going to bite you Jane, just to make sure everyone knows you're mine" Her voice was a low, throaty groan.

"I'm always yours Maura, only yours"

"Good, let me remind you why" Stepping back slightly, I squatted between her legs balancing on the heels. I could not only see Jane's desperate arousal, I could smell it, a heady scent that made me, if anything, even hotter for her. I slowly leaned in and dragged my nails down the back of her thighs, over her knees and down her calves, then slowly back up.

I could hear her hiss at the touch, a slight tremble in her legs. Smiling, I leaned in and replaced the nails on her left thigh with my tongue, drawing patterns higher and higher, stopping just before the junction. I could taste the edges of the wetness; Jane was basically running like a river and oh so very, very ready.

I pulled away before repeating my work on her other thigh, again stopping just barely before reaching her panties. By now Jane's low moans were almost constant as I slowly raked my fingernails up and down her calves and outer thighs.

Jane was on show, but I wanted more. Gently I slid my fingers under the edge of her skirt and pushed it higher, exposing even more of her to me. I looked at her tight glutes, encased within her now-sodden black lace panties. Unable to resist, I sank my teeth lightly into her ass, drawing a hiss and moan.

"Have I told you how much I love your legs and ass Jane? They truly are one of your best features. I love it that no one else gets to see them, to appreciate them quite like this. All for me"

"All yours Maura, all yours" Her voice was a low and breathy moan.

"I love how these panties do wonderful things to your ass Jane but well, they're ruined now" With that I gently slid my fingers inside the elastic, before yanking away viciously and snapping the elastic it as I ripped it off her in a single move, throwing the sodden material away"

"That's better" I ran my tongue across her buttocks, hearing the groan ripped from her. I leaned further down and ran my tongue up the inside of her thigh, while my hands continued to squeeze and knead her ass cheeks.

I caught her wetness on my tongue, the taste kicking me into an even higher state of arousal, as it always did. The scientific part of my mind can list the various components of female vaginal lubrication fluids and how they change during sexual arousal, but with Jane all I care about is how she tastes; and she tastes wonderful.

Working my way up one thigh and then down the other, I collected as much of her on my tongue as possible, feeling the shivers in her thighs as I did. Slowly I worked closer and closer to her source, hearing her moaning and groaning softly as I worked her even higher.

Just as I reached her pussy, I pulled away, making her whine and beg. I smiled. Jane was going to explode tonight; I was driving her mad with the teasing.

Settling myself, I took tighter hold on her buttocks, pulling them gently apart before applying my tongue to the cleft, swirling it back and forward before slowly working my way down the valley between her ass cheeks. As I reached lower I heard her breath hitch, followed by a long, drawn out moan as I teased the puckered entrance to her anus.

The mass of nerves there hardwired to her brain made Jane writhe under me, as I lapped and swiped over and around it, before gently stabbing into the centre. I knew that Jane was very sensitive there; even though it had taken months together before she could overcome her repressed upbringing and thoughts that it was 'dirty' to finally shyly admit that anal sex was at least as much a turn on as normal sex.

The first time I gently slid a finger in there she had screamed in shock. Now she screamed in delight when we had anal sex. I made use of that, gently opening her up with my tongue, tasting her musky scent as she moaned loader and louder.

Finally I slid my tongue lower, catching the folds of her pussy, teasing gently, feeling her arousal wet my face as I sought out her clit. As I reached it and dragged my tongue across the raised nub, she gave a load moan, as her hips started to grind in slow circles.

A small smile crossed my face as I drew my tongue down the length of her pussy, feeling how it had opened in arousal, opened for me. Leaning further forward I sucked her clit into my mouth, gently sucking and teasing it with my tongue, hearing her moan louder and louder.

Gently letting it slip out of my mouth, I thrust my tongue inside her pussy, dragging a louder moan from Jane as she tried to force her hips even further back. I don't know how long I stayed there, making a complete meal of her pussy and clit, forcing ever louder noises from her.

Finally, feeling the strain on my calves and thighs where I was squatting, I slowly pulled away, dragging my tongue back across her perineum, feeling her squirm, before driving the tip of my tongue back into her ass, drawing a loud groan of need from her. As she wriggled under me, I slapped her ass cheek with my hand, making her groan even more.

Slowly I pulled out and dragged the tongue up the cleft before standing up and leaning against her.

"That was very good Jane, you're very vocal tonight" I could feel the tremors and small shudders in her body, she was close. I slapped her ass again as I leaned away, causing her to gasp.

"But not vocal enough" I stepped to the side, straddling her right thigh and pressing my crotch into her skin. I knew that my panties were ruined but didn't care as I intended to grind myself into her.

Reaching around and under her, my right fingers sought out Jane's clit, my middle finger teasing and flicking across that bundle of nerves, drawing a strangled gasp from her as the nerve endings there responded to the stimulus. As she did, I became aware of faint moans and gasps from outside the room. I continued to tease her with my fingers as I spoke softly.

"Hear that Jane? That's Natalie fucking Anastasia senseless in the other room. And they're hearing you moan, just like we can hear them. I have no doubt it's turning you on as much as it is me, knowing that our sounds are driving them on"

I slowly slid my middle finger past her clit and into her by now sopping wet channel, drawing a throaty moan from her.

"I'm going to make you scream Jane, I'm going to give them something to listen to, something to bring them off as well. I started to slide the finger in and out, opening her up to me.

Her hips were working back and forward, as she hung onto the wall, her face pressed against it, eyes squeezed shut. I could imagine how desperate she was, the whole night had been a long build up to this.

"Imagine what they're doing Jane, listening to us, as I fuck you" I slid my index finger into her slowly, forcing her wider, twisting both fingers.

"Maybe she's using her tongue, perhaps she's finger fucking Anastasia just like I am you" I could see the beads of perspiration on her brow and upper lip, Jane was starting to roll her hips into me, she was getting closer, as she got more and more vocal.

I slid my ring finger into her, bringing a shuddering groan as the three fingers opened her up. I twisted the fingers so they were curling forward into her, seeking her G spot as my palm covered her clit.

Slowly I started scissoring my fingers open and closed, sending pulsing waves through her. Her breathing had become ragged gasps as she shook and twisted under me, desperate for me to touch her inside, to hit that spot that would bring her to a shattering climax. I knew she would explode if I did, but I wanted more, to drive her even higher.

I slid the tip of my left middle finger into the entrance to her dripping pussy, feeling her groan as she was forced even wider.

"I'm sure their wondering what I'm doing to you, to make you so vocal Jane. They know that I'm fucking you, but they just don't know how, or how much I love it, driving you mad, making you come" Jane's hips were bucking as she tried to drive my fingers into her, to push her over the edge.

I slid the now well-lubricated finger out of her pussy and up her valley, before teasing her anal ring. Jane was moaning constantly, a jumble of words, entreaties and my name over and over, begging me, pleading with me.

I gently slid the finger gently inside her, feeling her shudder from the pleasure before I started to twist it in and out of her.

"But do they know I'm fucking your ass?" Her voice was getting higher and higher as my teasing tone, my words, added to the sensations that were consuming her

I leant in as I curled my fingers inside her pussy, feeling the slightly textured surface she needed touched, while I ground my palm into her clit.

"I wonder if they know how much I love watching you climax Jane; especially when you come hard for me"

She was nearly incoherent, as my fingers drove her higher and higher, I was unashamedly fucking my pussy into her, as her bucking under my fingers made her thigh grind against my clit.

My fingers worked faster, she was moaning continuously, panting and shuddering, her head thrown back, eyes closed as I leant into her, feeling her so close. Just as she reached a peak, I leant in and sunk my teeth into her shoulder. Her eyes flew open as I marked her, making her mine once more.

The sensations combined were too much; she flew apart, shuddering, shaking and screaming. I hung on as she bucked under me, her arms slapping against the wall, her scream echoing in the room as she climaxed explosively against me.

Gently sliding my fingers out of her, I supported her as she recovered. Eventually she subsided, her body's shakes turning to trembling and shivering, as she collapsed against the wall.

Slowly she returned to me, her eyes opening as she turned to face me, leaning her shoulder against the wall for support. I was surprised and a little pleased with myself, I'm usually the one who's incoherent after coming, Jane's normally much less shattered. Mind you, we had a whole night of build-up and having an audience had obviously pushed some buttons for her as well.

Just as she opened her mouth to speak, we heard a shrieking moan from the other room, making us both smile. Hearing us must have pushed them over the edge.

"That was…"

"Amazing" She smiled softly at me. "I've not come like that for ages; it was almost as good as that time on holidays"

"Mmm, you were so good"

"So were you"

We leaned in and wrapped arms around each other, just happy to be held. Eventually Jane sought out my mouth and kissed me softly and sweetly, before gently pulling her head back.

"I think we should get out of these clothes and into bed"

"Yes, I'm sure you're tired after coming like that"

"Baby, I am, but I owe you one, you've not come yet"

"Well, it can wait until you're recovered" She grinned, that cocky Jane grin I love so much.

"Ok, but not too long, I want to show Ana and Nat that I can take care of you too"

"Oh, well, when you put it like that…"

It was going to be a long night.


	61. Chapter 61

**A/N **The wonderful characters of 'The Closer' and 'Rizzoli and Isles' belong to their respective rights holders, no infringement is intended, but as always, thanks for letting us have our way with them, if only for a moment.

A quick thanks to Kyra Sedgwick, Mary McDonnell, Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander for the warmth and depth you bring to the portrayals of our favourite detectives.

**The morning after the night before**

Jane's viewpoint

Oh god, morning already? The sun was trying to claw its way past the drapes which, thank god, were closed. So instead of a burning ray of light searing its way into my eyeballs it was instead a gentle glow warming the room.

It was still too damned bright.

I groaned softly, everything hurt, a kinda good hurt, but hurt is still hurt. I would have rolled over and pulled the covers over my head, except that I had a slumbering Maura snuggled half across me. She was lying there with her head on my shoulder, her arm across my chest and her leg thrown over mine, so I wasn't going anywhere.

I peered over at the clock, glowing entirely too cheerfully for something reading 9.10 on a Sunday morning, especially a Sunday morning after a very, very late Saturday night.

I used the hand that wasn't wrapped around Maura's shoulder to run it through my hair and down the back of my neck, trying to massage a few kinks out, wincing as I felt a few sore spots, especially one at the base of the neck, before realising that was where Maura had sunk her teeth into me. I was going to be carrying that mark for a few days at least.

I could imagine the comments I would get from the guys at work, especially Sanchez; I smirked, jealously was an ugly emotion and they had a lot to be jealous about. I looked down at Maura, still sleeping soundly.

Poor baby, I must have really worn her out, she's normally an early riser. Hell she often starts the day with a five AM yoga session before having a shower and breakfast, which I think is mad, missing all that extra sleep.

But when I kid her about it she usually reminds me of the many benefits of yoga, including upper body strength, a toned physique and exceptional flexibility, all of which I've learned to appreciate, especially that last.

If she was still asleep now, she really was wasted, mind you, I had no real desire to get up, I wasn't feeling too energetic either, we'd had a serious workout, on the dance floor and afterwards. Smiling at Maura, I pressed a gentle kiss to soft blonde hair and let myself drift back to sleep.

Unfortunately, it didn't last all that long, I felt the call of nature, all that alcohol last night meant a visit to the bathroom was in order. Sighing gently I carefully extricated myself from under Maura; she made some gentle whimpering sounds as I slid out from under her, but I kissed her gently on the temple and she quieted, unconsciously moving into the warm spot where I had lain.

Not wanting to risk waking her, I decided to use another bathroom, maybe the one out near the pool if I had to. Pulling on a polo and shorts I quietly walked to the door, noticing our clothes from last night strewn everywhere, a reminder of what we'd got up to.

Quietly easing out the door I made my way down the hall past the other bedrooms towards the kitchen, thinking a coffee would help as well, so I should put the jug on.

Entering the kitchen, I flicked the switch on the jug before making my way out to the pool house bathroom. Wandering back in afterwards I found a very ordinary looking Ana busy staring at the jug, obviously willing it to boil faster.

"Hey"

"Hey"

Pleasantries taken care of, I grabbed a pair of mugs and poured some coffee into the cups straight from the bottle. Ana watched but didn't complain; when the jug boiled she just poured the water straight in, filling both, before setting the jug back and lifting the cup to her mouth as I did the same.

In synchronised action we both blew on our coffee's, cooling the water enough to let us sip, before twisting our faces as the pure caffeine hit. She was marginally faster.

"Shit that's strong"

"Damn that's hot"

As the caffeine hit we slowly became more aware of our surroundings, in particular each other.

She looked very ordinary in fact, obviously not enough sleep, rings under her eyes, hair a mess and carrying several quite noticeable marks on her neck and shoulder. Never one to let an opportunity pass I had to say something.

"You look like shit" She ignored me for a moment, taking another pull on her coffee, before offering a mature and considered response.

"Fuck off" I snorted, not offended, just pleased to have the opportunity to give her a hard time. Unfortunately I didn't get to enjoy it for long.

"I take it you haven't actually looked in the mirror this morning?"

"Huh?" She waved her hand in my general direction.

"I could make a comment about pots and kettles, but basically you look like something the cat dragged in" I really didn't want to get up and look, a little scared at what I'd see, so I ignored her.

We sat there for a while, finishing the coffee as I felt it starting to hit me, I'd probably had the equivalent of four spoons of coffee in there, so the caffeine jolt, when it hit, hit hard.

I looked around, realising just how stiff and sore I really was, Maura had done a number on me, I felt sore inside and out. I was about to say something when I realised that Ana had heard us last night. We'd practically been in a competition to see who could make the most noise.

I felt my face colouring, shit this was embarrassing, she'd heard us moan and scream and yell, probably some fairly explicit things actually. Oh god, how did I handle this.

Eventually I looked up to see her looking at me, a tinge of red in her cheeks as well. Looks like I wasn't the only one thinking about how awkward last night might have been. Ah well, here goes.

"What happens in Las Vegas…" She nodded.

"Stays in Las Vegas" I held out my hand and we shook on it. She looked closely at me.

"Seriously, Maura's gotta be part vampire, she's made a mess of your neck, both sides" I nodded.

""Same with you, all down your left side's a mess" She rolled her eyes.

"You don't know the half of it" she turned away and reached over her shoulder, pulling up her t-shirt. Her back was covered in scratch marks; in fact she'd been quite effectively clawed. I winced, immediately glad that Maura kept hers neatly trimmed short, long nails don't go too well with surgical gloves.

"Jeez Ana, that's gonna hurt" Dropping the shirt back, she turned back to me and nodded.

"Nat's not normally like that, but last night, well she was a bit frenzied" I bit my lip. Maura had been a different person last night, raw and desperate and well, frenzied wasn't such a bad description. Ana reached out and pulled my polo shirt neck to one side, pulling a face as she saw the damage, before letting it go.

"I wasn't kidding, oh man, you'll need to wear turtlenecks for the rest of the week" I looked at her, silently shaking my head, before I noticed Joe bouncing around, demanding some attention.

I picked her up and gave her a cuddle, getting a good face licking in return. Ana smiled at the sight.

"Well at least someone doesn't care what you look like" I snorted, before handing her off to Ana and rustling up a frypan.

"I need food; bacon and eggs work for you?" Ana was concentrating on Joe, playing with her on her lap but looked up.

"Hell yeah, lots"

I bent over to get the pan out of its drawer, groaning gently at the muscle pain. Ana must have heard it.

"Sore?" I looked up at her, before nodding. She watched me for a moment before replying.

"Me too, I ache and can't wait for a long soak in the tub" She paused, looking at me quietly before continuing. "But I wouldn't trade it for anything"

I thought about it for a moment as I grabbed the eggs and bacon from the fridge. I was going to be stiff and sore for a couple of days plus I'd get no end of grief from the guys at work. Still, she was right.

"Me neither"


	62. Chapter 62

**OIS Investigation**

Sharon's viewpoint

Monday morning and my day seemed to be going well. Following the wonderful but very draining dinner with Brenda, I'd headed home and crashed on my lounge, lying awake hoping to hear from her. Happily I'd received two texts and a call before I went to bed; her investigation was pretty simple, the boy had been to a dance party and got a really bad dose of ecstasy on top of way too much to drink. He'd collapsed and was pronounced when the EMTs got there.

Sad but normally not a Major Crimes case, however given whom the boy's father was, Pope wanted it handled quickly and well, which meant Major Crimes and Brenda. I was sorry our night had been cut short, it wasn't what either of us wanted but after our discussion; both of us understood that the job had to be done

As Brenda had said, if it had been an OIS I'd have had to go and I would have, with regrets but without an argument from her. I smiled at the thought of that. It felt so good to be involved, well kinda, with someone who completely understood what we were required to do and why.

We'd chatted again on the phone on Sunday afternoon, just catching up, she in her office going over the paperwork, me pottering around the house, making it presentable.

I'd invited Brenda around for dinner but she'd just teased me, laughing that I just wanted to make out again like we had on Friday night. I hadn't actually thought about it but once I had the thought of kissing her again was very, very tempting.

Brenda still had a few hours of paperwork, pointing out that given the pressure from above, this one had to be perfect, so we chatted about the case, it was pretty open and shut, they were chasing down the dealer, shaking down his haunts, rattling his friends and associates.

We agreed it was only a matter of time before someone gave him up just to get the heat to go away. Contrary to the saying, there was precious little honour amongst thieves. If it would make the cops go away someone would give him up, that is if he didn't turn up dead first, anything to get rid of the attention.

Finally I let her go though I really wanted to keep talking, just hearing her on the phone, learning more about her, ah well, we had our usual Monday night 'date'.

I was anticipating catching up with Brenda for coffee after work. I normally looked forward to it but after the weekend I was really looking forward to it. I'd rung this morning to confirm that she could make it and gathered from her reaction that she couldn't wait either.

Her investigation was winding down, as her squad and the uniforms chased down leads. Mind you, her other big investigation, the sniper case, was still ongoing, even though nothing had turned up about Charlotte Weaver yet. Brenda was of the opinion that she was going to try again tomorrow but they had moved everyone she had coached at the gym into hotels until she was caught.

As Brenda put it, waking up tomorrow to find that another pretty young woman hadn't died was going to be the best Tuesday morning she's had in ages.

I was sitting there going over paperwork and clock watching, though I still had almost three hours before we could meet up. I smiled to myself, I was behaving a little silly, we weren't even a couple, let alone anything more and in fact I wasn't sure what we were.

We were friends, even if it wasn't with benefits. We weren't lovers, not yet, though I was looking to change that. We weren't girlfriends, at least in the non-platonic sense, so what were we?

After chewing over it for a few minutes while I pretended to read the same paragraph several times, I decided to leave it at best friends for now. I hoped to change that status soon but for now that would do.

Sighing, I dropped the papers on my desk, lifted the glasses off my face and massaged my eyes for a moment, before picking up glasses and papers and starting again, resolutely putting thoughts of blonde hair and warm smiles firmly to one side, when the phone rang.

Thirty minutes later I was stepping out of the car at a seedy apartment building like so many others in LA, so many in fact I was sure they divided and multiplied like bacteria under cover of night. I'd been responding to crime scenes at buildings like this for what at times seemed like forever, they differed in a few minor details but under the external gloss they were all the same.

Flanked by Lieutenant's Elliot and Parker and trailed by Sergeant Kwang and Detective Rosenberg, I strode into the building, ignoring the hostile looks of Robbery Homicide's people. I'd been in the same situation only four months ago, another shooting involving Taylor's team, though that one had been straightforward. I hoped like hell this one would be as well.

Problem was that Taylor's people were getting trigger happy. Over the last year or so, I'd been called to more and more of their busts gone wrong. Everyone thought it was Major Crimes that caused me grief, but they had nothing like R/H's rate of Officer Involved Shootings.

Besides, every time there had been an OIS involving Major Crimes, they had cooperated, initially grudgingly, but Brenda had pushed them to be as open as they could be, speeding up the investigation and letting me get them back to work as quickly as I could.

Robbery Homicide however went out of their way to delay, stall and confuse the issue, covering for each other and making investigating them not only difficult, but a guaranteed migraine.

Apparently, while looking for a suspect in an armed robbery, one of the R/H detectives, Sergeant Kennedy, had shot and killed the suspect, Robert Dimery, allegedly Dimery had pulled a gun on Kennedy.

Taking over the scene, we shooed the Robbery / Homicide people out and started our investigation.

It looked straightforward enough, three shots, all to the torso, a .22 handgun lying nearby. Elliot looked at the pistol for a moment.

"Pretty wimpy pistol for a career criminal with a history of violent crimes who's supposed to be wanted for armed robbery" I nodded.

"Perhaps it was the only thing he had to hand"

We stood back as a tech started photographing everything, recording the scene. Once they'd finished we were about to head back in when Maura isles arrived, looking lovely in what looked like a Balenciaga dress, a scarf and a set of Jimmy Choo's that I was immediately envious of.

"Good afternoon Sharon, I'm sorry I was late, I was in a meeting"

"Afternoon Maura, I'm just happy to see you" As she walked over to the body I noticed the scarf wasn't exactly right for the dress, plus it was really too warm for one. My curiosity was piqued. I wondered what she was hiding though I could make a few guesses.

Brenda had mentioned that both couples had taken themselves off the callout roster for the weekend as they had a big night out planned. Perhaps a bit too much evidence was left to cover up with makeup. As Maura processed the body I watched my squad start to toss the apartment when I heard a set of heels approach up the hall, followed by a chirpy greeting.

Turning, I said hi to Natalie, who was standing in the doorway, pulling on shoe covers and gloves, before entering. My suspicions about what happened were confirmed when I saw she was wearing a turtleneck and slacks. Not her normal get up at all, even though she looked lovely as usual.

"How are our friends from the media?" She smiled.

"Only two film crews shooting for 24 hour news channels are here, unless something changes I expect it'll stay low key" I tilted my head.

"Then why do you roll out for these Natalie? Surely you have better things to do?" She smiled and shrugged.

"As God is my judge, the one that I don't will be the one that blows up in my face. Besides, it's my job" I could understand that. She looked round the room. "So what do we have?" I shrugged.

"A routine Robbery Homicide bust gone wrong it seems. The suspect was wanted for questioning about several armed robberies, apparently a source fingered him and Detective's Kennedy and Powell swung by to pick him up for questioning. They claim he refused to open up and when they kicked the door in ran back inside. They say he drew a gun and went to shoot Kennedy, who discharged his weapon, hitting the victim three times" I gestured to where Maura was looking over the victim while her team hovered nearby.

"Seems simple enough…" She held up her hand before I could say anything. "…but OIS are never ever that simple so I'll leave you to it. I'll be downstairs, keeping out of your way. If there's anything you need just call" I nodded. As she went to turn away she suddenly swung back.

"Oh Sharon" I turned back to her, looking the question.

"Yes?" She smiled as she stepped up to me and spoke softly.

"How was your Saturday night?" I looked around before stepping even closer and dropping my voice.

"Exceptionally pleasant thank you, we covered a lot of territory and we're much better friends than we were before" Natalie's smile widened happily, obviously pleased. For a moment I wondered what Brenda and I had done to deserve so many people going out of their way to try and make us happy.

While we had chatted Maura had stood up and let her team begin to prepare the victim for transport back to the morgue. Wandering over she smiled at us both.

"I've seen as much here as I can, we'll transport Mr Dimery back to the Morgue; however I won't get to the autopsy until first thing tomorrow I'm afraid Sharon"

"Oh?" That was a surprise; Maura had a deserved reputation for being both thorough and quick.

"I'm so very sorry Sharon, I really am, but I have to present a budget request for additional funding to Chief Pope in just on an hour, which I expect will run for several hours" I could tell Maura was actually quite ashamed that she couldn't do things any faster. She suddenly brightened. "If it helps, I could do it after the budget meeting; that would mean you'd have the results by say ten tonight?"

"Don't be silly Maura, doing it tomorrow morning is fine" She smiled in relief.

"Thank you Sharon, you're very kind"

"Not at all, in fact I really have to thank you both for your help" Both Maura and Natalie looked surprised. Natalie was quicker.

"Why, what'd we do?" I dropped my voice and leaned into both of them.

"I believe that you were collectively responsible for how Brenda was dressed on Saturday night" Natalie just smiled while Maura leaned in.

"We thought she would look lovely. I hope you approved" I smiled at both of them.

"She looked beautiful, thank you both so much" Natalie grinned.

"Well, an artist is only as good as her canvas, and Brenda's a pretty nice canvas…" I could tell they were both dying to ask, but trying to be nice about it. I decided to put them out of their misery, especially as they were both cheering us on.

"Brenda and I had a long talk and decided that we're both interested but we're also going to take it slow" The smiles on both their faces were a joy to behold.

Fortunately they had kept their voices down and played it cool; checking to be sure none of my squad was nearby.

"Jane and I are very happy for you both Sharon"

"Same goes for Ana and me too. You both deserve it" I smiled at how obviously happy they were for us.

"Thank you, its early days, but we'll get there" Natalie laughed gently.

"Of course you will, honestly I'm so happy for you" Maura nodded.

"If there's anything that any of us can do Sharon, just ask"

"Just be as supportive as you have been, honestly we couldn't ask for anything more" Natalie smiled.

"No problem Sharon. If you need anything, just ask us" Maura was also smiling.

"Anything you need" I smiled to myself.

"There is one thing…" Maura looked at me with a tilt to her head, while Natalie raised an eyebrow, a question evident on her face.

"Oh?"

"How did your Saturday night go, anything interesting happen?" I knew something had the moment their eyes both flew to one another and they both gently coloured.

Natalie snagged my wrist and they dragged me out of the room and into another which was empty, before they closed the door. Natalie swallowed and looked at Maura, who was smiling a little nervously.

"We had a wonderful night Sharon, I can recommend The Intersection. It's certainly an interesting venue" I decided, given their obvious embarrassment, to tease them a bit.

"How about you Natalie, did you have a good time?" She nodded.

"Oh we had a great time; it was a fun night, really fun"

"And did Anastasia treat you to a good night. I hope she took care of you properly" I wasn't wrong, her cheeks were burning.

"Um, yeah, she was good, great in fact, great" I looked over at Maura, who was blushing furiously. I smiled, no way was I letting her off the hook.

"Did Jane have a good time Maura?" She bit her lip.

"Oh she did, a very good time in fact" I raised one eyebrow.

"And did she look after you as well" Maura looked like she was going to die of shame. Natalie jumped in.

"You can be a right bitch, you know that Sharon?" The smile in her voice belied her words. "Do you really want all the prurient details?" I laughed, letting them know I wasn't serious.

"Just the highlights will be fine" Sighing Natalie reached up and dragged down the turtleneck, revealing a neck covered in hickeys and bite marks. I whistled softly, her neck was a mess. Looking at Maura she sighed as well, before undoing the scarf, the base of her neck was no better.

"I hope you two gave as good as you got?" They looked at each other and snickered as Maura rolled her eyes at me.

"Let's just say they didn't escape unscathed from the evening" Natalie laughed.

"You should have seen them the following morning, I don't think Ana or Jane could look us in the face for the first 30 minutes when we got up, every time they did they turned bright red and started stammering" I thought about that for a moment, wondering how far they'd gone.

"What exactly did you four do?" Both of them looked at each other as their faces turned crimson. Finally Maura spoke.

"We may have had a little too much to drink and been carried away by the emotion, I mean it was a very intense night and well we'd been dancing and partying for hours and…" I just looked at her over the tops of my glasses. Natalie cut in, her voice quite low.

"We had a dare, Maura and I, over which of us could make our partner scream louder. We were at it for most of the night"

"Really? You're kidding right?" They were very silent. "You're not? Ok, tell me, who won?"

They looked at each other for a moment, while Natalie's hand made a fluttering motion near her neck.

"We both did" Maura looked at Natalie and shyly nodded in agreement. I nodded slowly; it sounded like they had a hell of a night. Something I hoped Brenda and I would be able to do soon.

"I might get you to take Brenda and I there one night, it sounded like a good night was had by all" Natalie had regained some of her normal sass.

"Why Sharon Raydor, I had no idea you were like that"

"Oh Natalie, trust me, how I act at work is nothing like how I act with friends" Maura smiled as Natalie nodded.

"I'm starting to see that. So you think you're up for the same dare?" I smiled lazily.

"Not right away, but possibly yes, eventually" Maura and Natalie shared a look, before Maura surprised the hell out of me by grinning wickedly.

"You're on" Natalie couldn't let it be either.

"Let us know when you're up for it and we'll set it up" I chuckled.

"All in due course, I'll remind you its early days yet. in the meantime, I might suggest you lot restrain yourself for the rest of the week, remember it's the Ball next Saturday night and bite marks are a no no with evening gowns" Both looked stricken.

"Oh god, I forgot" Maura was no better.

"That would be so gauche" I couldn't help it, I let out an evil laugh.

"So reign in Ana and Jane, at least till next Saturday evening OK?" Maura nodded.

"That might be a wise idea Sharon, thank you"

"Exactly, so behave yourselves" We smiled at each other for a second, before we went our separate ways, Maura to see Pope, Natalie to chat to the media and I wandered back in to check on the team.

A couple of the team eyed me a little strangely as I reappeared, but they'd never say anything, too polite to hassle me, at least not over something so trivial.

They continued tossing the place, looking for anything out of place, as Elliot and I walked out to interview Kennedy and Powell.

Before I started, I rang Brenda and gave her the bad news; no catch up tonight, this one was going to take hours. She sounded sad but told me we had plenty of other nights to catch up this week and that if I needed anything to just text or call. In fact, she wanted me to text or call anyway, whenever I wanted. As I finally finished the call I couldn't help smiling. I may not have a title for what we were right now, but I was so happy we were…whatever.

My good mood lasted just long enough to start talking to Kennedy; he was evasive, unhelpful and managed to quite successfully piss me off, something that wasn't hard given I was unhappy at not spending my evening with Brenda over dinner.

20 minutes later Elliot and I compared statements and it was obvious that our suspects had collaborated on their statements; they were too similar, too pat. We were going to have to drag them into an interrogation room and try and dig down, which probably would mean they would lawyer up.

I could feel that migraine starting to flare behind my eyes, but before it could take hold my phone rang, the caller ID said Sergeant Kwang.

"Commander, you got a moment? I've got something I need you to see back in the apartment" Lucy sounded intrigued, which wasn't her at all; she was usually the calm, unruffled one.

I made my way back inside, to find her standing by the sofa. It was pulled out from the wall and she was standing looking at the back of it. When I joined her I looked down to see the sofa had three drawers set in it, not visible unless you pulled it out away from the wall. There was a small arsenal in there, a sawn-off shotgun, at least three automatic pistols, two 45s and a 9mm, plus a mini-Uzi. One draw was full of boxes of ammunition while another held a flak vest.

Kwang and I shared a look before I knelt down, running my fingers over the boxes on display. There was ammunition for all of the weapons in the drawers, but no .22 shells. As I stood up Lucy nodded.

"Little strange don't you think Boss? All this ammo and nothing for a 22"

"Indeed. It's also interesting that he had a 22 at hand, when everything else was hidden" Parker had wandered over as well.

"If he was going to shoot, why not use something useful instead of a purse pistol? I mean he was going to get charged no matter what he was carrying" I nodded. Something felt off about this case. I looked up at Elliot.

"Please inform Commander Taylor I'll be interviewing his team this evening and I would like to see the files from the case that they were investigating that led Kennedy and Powell here, when we get back to Headquarters"

I sighed. Taylor. Ugh.

It was a going to be a long night and my headache was about to get worse. I looked around.

"I don't suppose anyone has any Tylenol?"


	63. Chapter 63

**Brenda takes Sharon to an autopsy**

Sharon's viewpoint

Brenda and I were chatting over the Kennedy case, getting nowhere fast. Well to be honest I was ranting and she was listening.

It was obvious that Taylor's team were covering for him, trying to stall the investigation. There had been a sudden mass outbreak of amnesia, far too many of his team suddenly deciding 'they couldn't recall' much of anything.

It was frustrating and I was getting tense, which isn't helpful to my temper or my demeanour. Brenda was sitting there, watching me get worked up. I knew I was venting, that she was paying for my aggravation with Taylor and his men and deep down, I felt ashamed to be taking it out on her, but I needed to talk to someone.

It was bad enough that Major Crimes were staying well away from her office, probably looking to stay out of the line of fire.

I was interrupted mid-rant by her phone ringing. Looking at me while she raised an eyebrow at my antics she picked it up and answered.

"Chief Johnson" She nodded, at what she was being told before thanking them and telling the caller she would be right there. Hanging up she stood and walked towards the door.

"C'mon sweetie, let's go"

"Go where?"

"The place I go to hide out and relax"

"And where might that be?"

"The morgue" I stopped dead, as she kept walking past me.

"I beg your pardon?"

She paused at the door and looked over her shoulder with a playful expression on her face.

"No really Sharon, trust me" With that she strolled out the door. I rolled my eyes before spinning on my heel and stalking after her as she sauntered through the Murder Room towards the elevators.

"Commander Raydor and I will be with Doctor Isles if you need us" Several of her team nodded as we exited and walked down the corridor, probably relieved to see the back of me.

"So exactly why are we going to the morgue?"

"Sharon, it's hard to explain, but I've sat in on enough autopsies to know when their being done right and wrong. Maura Isles is the best I've ever seen" I shook my head as the doors to the elevator opened.

"That still doesn't explain why you are dragging me to this one"

"Well, it involves your case so I thought you should be there, it's also in the morgue, so it's one of the few places that I'm sure we won't be disturbed for a while" I had to roll my eyes at her again.

"If you wanted some peace and quiet Brenda, we could have just gone out for coffee" She just smiled at me and winked.

"Just you wait and see"

I just shook my head at the charming, distracting, sexy and annoying woman next to me.

A short elevator ride later we were pulling on scrubs and wandering into the autopsy room, where Maura Isles waited for us.

As Brenda led the way I saw Maura look up from a tray of instruments and smile.

"Good morning Brenda" Seeing me following Brenda her smile widened even more. "Sharon, lovely to see you again"

"Good morning, Maura, Brenda suggested I should sit in on your autopsy" She nodded her head.

"Of course, if you would like to take a seat we can get started"

Looking around I noticed several high backed bar stools, tall enough to sit on and still see over the autopsy. I didn't recall these the last time I was here; they must be new additions. A body was on the slab, hidden by a surgical sheet.

Before she started Maura walked over to an IPod docked in a high end sound system on a bench and turned it on, filling the room with the soft sounds of classical piano. I found myself trying to place the music. Maura looked over to me.

"I hope you don't mind, Sharon, I find the music soothing" I nodded. "Also I feel it's a more fitting piece for the victim's memory" I nodded, it was her autopsy.

Moving to the table, Maura set her face shield in place and activated a microphone over the table before turning down the sheet, revealing the face of Robert Dimery.

Giving the date and time for the benefit of the microphone, Maura commenced her autopsy.

"Chief Medical Examiner Maura Isles, undertaking the autopsy of a Caucasian male, approximate age early 30s, previously identified as Robert Dimery. This procedure is being witnessed by Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson, Major Crimes Division and Commander Sharon Raydor, Force Investigation Division"

As we watched, I rapidly came to realise what Brenda meant, Maura was an artist, completely in her element, not a move wasted, not an unnecessary incision, treating the body with a regard so lacking in death.

As the music softly played on, she sought out answers, occasionally pausing to point out something unusual or relevant. I found myself relaxing, the room was cool but not cold, very peaceful and the stream of classical music pieces was helping me to relax, almost without me realising it.

The sudden ringing of Maura's cell phone was a jarring sound against the classical piano. Smiling in apology Maura answered the call and had a quiet conversation which I assumed was with Jane Rizzoli, mentioning that Brenda and I were watching her. Smiling she ended the call and resumed her work.

About ten minutes later Jane wandered in with a collection of coffee's in a tray, smiling as she handed them out to each of us. I smiled as I took in her turtleneck sweater, concealing the weekend's evidence in the same way Maura's scarves did.

"I was passing, saw the light on and thought I'd drop in" Maura looked slightly confused, which I had to confess looked charming on her. Turning off the voice recorder and placing her face shield on a bench to one side she took the proffered coffee.

"Jane, you can't see the lights in the morgue unless you specifically get off at this level and walk around here" Jane just shook her head, smiling.

"Just an expression baby" Maura just rolled her eyes, before smiling at us.

"You'll have to excuse Jane, she can be a little colloquial, but she has her positive attributes" Maura held up her coffee. "Including being thoughtful" I smiled.

"Well I'm very grateful Jane, thank you" Brenda smiled as well.

"Likewise Jane, thank you for getting these, plus remembering the way we take our coffee's" She grinned at Brenda.

"Well Chief, if I couldn't remember the bosses coffee order I'd be out of here in short order and besides, gotta get in early on the next round of fitness reports" Brenda just smiled broadly, taking the sting out of her next words.

"You're incorrigible Jane, be off with you before I report you for trying to bribe a superior officer" Jane just flashed us a brilliant smile, before leaning in and giving Maura a quick but deep kiss.

"See you later babe" Maura smiled back happily

"See you tonight darling" I looked at Brenda out of the corner of my eye, she was smiling happily.

"Later everyone, better get back to work, otherwise my boss will have my ass" As we snickered Maura smiled broadly.

"I don't think so Jane, remember, it belongs to me"

With a laugh and a wave Jane strode out, leaving us smiling in her wake.

"Sorry for the interruption, but I thought you wouldn't mind" I laughed.

'Not at all Maura" Brenda smiled.

"It was very thoughtful of her and I appreciate it"

Maura smiled before setting her face shield back in place, switching the recorder back on and setting back to work.

Finally, after another ten minutes or so of work Maura looked up at me from where she was examining the victim's side.

"Commander Raydor, the victim was shot several times as you are aware, however please observe in particular this shot through the left rear quadrant of the upper torso, as you can see here" She indicated the entry point.

"Yes?"

"I understand that the officer who fired the fatal shot claimed that he fired at the victim who was aiming a gun at him?" Remembering the recorder running, I kept the tone formal.

"That is correct Doctor"

"This shot penetrated through the chest cavity and the myogenic muscular organ, passing from the left ventricle through the main cardiac muscle mass, exiting through the right atrium and passing through the upper left lung before exiting the chest cavity here"

"I see" Indeed I could and I could tell from the way Brenda was leaning forward as well that she could as well. "And your conclusion is?"

"This shot would have been instantly fatal. In addition, the line of the bullet suggests that the victim was shot from behind, partly crouching over"

"Furthermore, examination of the victim suggests that the musculature of the right hand was more significantly developed that that of the left, indicating that the victim was right handed" I nodded.

"Ah, I see, so the victim was shot while turned away from the officer's gun, and couldn't have got a shot off as the shot killed them instantly before they could have fired" Brenda saw where this was going as well, leaning back in the chair.

"Even if he had a gun in their hand, Dimery couldn't have fired at the officer, because their body was in the way" Maura smiled at us both.

"Exactly"

"The other shots were fired from the front and the angle suggests that the trajectory was slightly low entering the chest cavity here and here" she indicated the entry wounds, before rolling the body on its side. "With the exit wounds slightly higher at the rear, suggesting that the victim was slumped against a wall or falling when the additional shots were made" I nodded.

"So you infer that the shot order was the fatal shot first, then the two other shots followed that?"

"That would appear to be the logical sequence, yes"

I smiled at Maura; her fine work had made this case much more airtight.

"Thank you Doctor, I appreciate your work" She smiled quietly.

"It's my pleasure" Brenda and I sat back as she completed her work.

Finally, almost an hour after starting, Maura commenced closing the body up, suturing the Y incision closed with a delicacy and care I would have found incongruous from anyone else, but which simply reflected Maura's skill and compassion.

Standing up, I thanked her again for which she simply smiled graciously. As we left, I turned to look back at her, to see her still looking at us.

"Maura, I recognised almost every piece of music that played while you worked, but not the first one. What piece is it?"

"Piano Concerto in F Minor by Hae-Won Chang" Realising I didn't recognise it she smiled much wider. "It's from the movie Lara Croft Tomb Raider. Jane's taste for action movies has rubbed off on me it seems"

Brenda chuckled as I tried hard to keep my face from showing my surprise as she continued.

"As Lara Croft, Angelina Jolie does make a quite acceptable role model, for an action hero" I nodded, as a smile broke out over my face.

"That she does Maura; for an action hero. Thank you again; I truly appreciate your help"

"As we dumped our scrubs and walked to the elevator Brenda tilted her head to look at me and spoke in a teasing tone.

"Well sweetie, what'd I say" I smiled back at her as I pressed the button for the elevator.

"Thank you Brenda, you were right" She smiled that cheeky Brenda Leigh smile at me.

"Cause I was, not only did you get an hours peace and quiet, but a lot further along in your case" I nodded slowly.

"Now we just have to make it stick" Brenda nodded, before glancing sideways at me from under her lashes.

"Speaking of stick, are you sticking to our dinner plans for tonight?" I smiled.

Of course, wouldn't miss it for the world" She smiled as the sound of the elevator dinged on the floor above us. She looked up at me before taking a small step closer, close enough that our shoulders were almost touching, a sly smile on her face.

"Y'know sweetie, when they designed this building they made one mistake" I frowned, though I was painfully aware of her perfume drifting to me.

"What mistake" She smiled more widely.

"They didn't put any security camera's covering the lift well on this floor"

With that she stepped right up to me, leaning in for a quick, teasing, gentle kiss, quickly stepping back before I could react and deepen it. I looked at her, shocked, stunned and very turned on.

Just then the elevator dinged for our floor and opened. Brenda stepped in, turned around and laughed at me.

"Coming Commander?"

Numbly I nodded and stepped in beside her, ignoring the four or five people in the elevator with us. I was still processing that quick, playful kiss, my tongue running over my lips as I struggled to get my arousal and breathing under control.

As the elevator stopped at her floor, Brenda stepped out before turning to look at me, an enigmatic smile on her face.

"I'll see you at seven then Commander, don't be late"

As the doors shut only one thought came to mind. 'Ooh, that woman!'


	64. Chapter 64

**Coffee and conspiracies**

Brenda's viewpoint

I breezed into 'our' café a couple of minute's late, wrapping up the paperwork on the ecstasy case involving the Deputy Mayor's son had held me up.

An anonymous tip had led us to a dumpster in a back alley in Culver City where we found the body of George Serrao, the dealer we'd been chasing for the last three days. He'd been shot in the back of the head and dumped there, pretty obviously someone wanted all the attention to go away and decided giving him up was the quickest way to do it. This way we got him but there was no way he could give us his bosses or other customers.

Pope had been able to tell the boy's father the news, giving them some sort of closure I suppose, even if it didn't bring their 18 year old son back.

As I swung through the door I waved at Sarah, who nodded at a back booth where Sharon was waiting and held up a cup, indicating our drinks were on their way.

As I walked down the back of the café I saw Sharon smile at me, taking in my suit's forest green pencil skirt and jacket and matching heels. It was a relatively new outfit and it was the first time I'd worn it to our catch-ups.

I'd seen it sitting in my wardrobe in the plastic wrap fresh from the dry cleaners and I'd worn it specially. I wanted to have her see me in something nice, something new. She didn't like the floral's I'd worn for so long and I wanted her to like what I was wearing, to appreciate me. I liked to see her look at me and appreciate what she was seeing.

I knew it was silly really, but I wanted her approval, it meant a lot to me.

As I reached the table Sharon stood, letting me see her in a tailored dark jacket over a black dress, plus a lovely set of three inch heels that did really nice things to her legs.

I paused for a second, realising I'd noticed what they were doing to her legs, which was something new. I blushed a little at the realisation that I was seeing her as an attractive woman, not just as a friend. Sharon must have caught the blush, as she smirked gently before enfolding me in a hug and giving me a peck on the cheek.

"You have to tell me what just crossed your mind honey"

I sat down at the booth, blushing even more.

"I was just admiring your shoes Sharon, is all" She smirked again; stretching her leg out and letting me look at it.

"Really, these old things? I'm just glad you like what you see" I looked over her leg and realised I did like what I saw, as she turned the shoe for my inspection. Her leg was strong and shapely and gently tanned. I looked up to see her teasing green eyes watching me as she smiled softly and dropped her leg.

"I like the suit Brenda Leigh, you look good" It wasn't something new, she'd told me she liked seeing me in various sets of clothes, but it meant a lot more to me now.

"Thank you sweetie, I appreciate it" Sharon was about to say more, probably teasing me about something or other when I was saved by the arrival of Sarah with our drinks. Leaving us in peace with a quick smile, Sarah wandered off to serve a couple walking in as we looked at each other.

"How was your day?" I shrugged.

"We wrapped up the ecstasy case, the dealer turned up in a dumpster" She nodded; it was something we'd been half expecting. "What about you?"

"Nothing, Taylor's team's still stalling. Powell's testimony in particular isn't consistent with the evidence. I'm leaning to the theory that he was in another room when Kennedy shot the vic and his testimony's still much the same as it was when we got there" I nodded.

"And Kennedy?"

"Still sticking to his original story, Dimery pulled a gun and went to shoot him, he shot him in self-defence. Not that I believe a word of it" I interlaced my fingers and rested my chin on them.

"Why not?" She tasted her coffee and continued.

"The evidence isn't there to support their story. They went there on the basis of an anonymous tip-off. What made them choose to go after this particular anonymous tip rather than any other? Plus Dimery had access to real guns, not a toy; if he was prepared to shoot it out, why not do so with a decent weapon?" I nodded gently; there were inconsistencies there, not enough to make a case though.

"Go on"

"The 22 hadn't been fired in a long time, it hadn't been maintained properly, there was dust and grit inside the barrel. All of Dimery's other weapons were well maintained, nothing like the 22" I nodded. "There was no extra ammunition for the 22, even though he kept boxes of ammo for everything else. The 22 was listed as belonging to an owner killed in a robbery gone wrong several years ago, nothing since" She paused a moment for another sip of her coffee.

"There were only two sets of prints on the weapon, Dimery's on the handle and trigger, Kennedy's on the weapon, ostensibly where he removed the weapon from Dimery's hand. There were none of Dimery's prints inside the weapon's mechanism, it looks like if it was his gun, he never opened it" I frowned.

"You're thinking the weapon was a plant. Kennedy shot Dimery and planted the 22 there to make it look like a righteous shoot?" Sharon looked frustrated.

"Yes, but that makes no sense. That would mean Powell was in on it as well and that they were prepared to do so. Why would they go to Dimery's place with the intention of shooting him, why take a weapon to plant on him if they needed to?"

"You said that the 22 was reported stolen, a robbery gone wrong?" She nodded. "I don't suppose there's any link between Kennedy, Powell and that case?" Sharon smiled.

"I've got the squad chasing down the paperwork for that investigation as we speak" I smiled.

"Of course you do, that was too obvious" Sharon frowned at me for a moment.

"I've been a detective longer than you Brenda honey, I can see something if it's sitting in front of my nose" I laughed at her mock-aggrieved tone.

"I know you can sweetie, course you can. I wonder though… How quickly did back up get there after the shooting?" She paused to recall.

"Hmm, less than 90 seconds, a neighbour called the police the moment she heard the shot and a Black and White was less than three blocks down the road, just finished giving a traffic citation" I nodded slowly, thinking that over. Sharon's eyes narrowed.

"What?"

"Have either Kennedy or Powell had previous OIS cases? She rolled her eyes.

"The whole damned Robbery Homicide squad has. Things were bad under Commander De Francesco; they've become much worse since Taylor's taken over. Over the past four years, Kennedy had three OIS investigations in his jacket, Powell two, that's before this current one" I fell back in the seat, shocked. I had no idea it was that bad.

"Oh my god Sharon, that's…" She nodded.

"Insane, yes I know. Since Taylor's taken over I've had five OIS, including this one, in the last year"

"I had no idea"

"Few people do, as I'm sure you'd understand, for a number of reasons Pope wants it kept quiet" I snorted quietly.

"Covering his own ass being the foremost of them" She smiled.

"It is Pope we're talking about after all" I sighed.

"I was enjoying our discussion until you mentioned his name" Sharon nodded.

"Then by all means let's change the subject. Have you picked out what you're wearing for the Ball?" I could tell she was expecting me to have procrastinated and not done anything. I smiled smugly.

"Yes I have, all picked out and good to go" Sharon just looked at me over her glasses, doubt written on her face.

"Really?" My smile got even more smug, I couldn't help it.

"Yep, all done. I hope you'll like it" One finely sculpted eyebrow climbed up her forehead.

"What exactly are you planning on wearing Brenda?" I grinned at her as I shook my head.

"Uh ah sweetie, it's a surprise. One I kinda hope you'll like" She frowned at me.

"You're honestly going to make me wait til Saturday night?"

"Yes I am; I like giving surprises. I can tell you it's completely unlike anything you've ever seen me in" I had her attention now, as her eyes narrowed at me.

"This wouldn't have anything to do with the shopping trip you did with Natalie and Maura recently would it?" I smiled.

"It might, but no hassling them about it, I swore them to secrecy" I saw a thoughtful look pass over her. "What?"

"I have leverage on them" Ooh, that sounded interesting, gossip was always fun, especially when it was about friends.

"What leverage" She grinned at my quick, eager question.

"I know what they got up to on the weekend" I was instantly intrigued.

"And…" Sharon smirked at me.

"Did you notice anything different about Jane and Maura since the weekend?" I thought back over the past two days; Maura at the autopsy this morning and Jane over the past two days.

"Nothing specific, why" Sharon's laughter was rich and throaty.

"They had a very big night on Saturday night and are all carrying some pretty obvious scars" I thought back again. Scars…what the hell? Oh? Oh.

"How bad?"

"Bad enough that Maura's wearing scarves and Jane's and Natalie are wearing turtlenecks, I haven't seen Ana but I suspect she's joined the turtleneck brigade as well" I suddenly remembered Maura wearing a scarf during the autopsy and Jane had been wearing turtlenecks for the last two days, now I thought about it.

"Oh for heaven's sake, that could be embarrassing if they don't heal up by Saturday" She sniggered.

"I told them to behave themselves, given the Ball's almost here" I laughed.

"What the hell were they doing? Sounds like they had one heck of a time" She leaned forward.

"They went to LA's hottest lesbian club, had dinner, danced and partied for hours, before heading back home and partying all night" I shivered a little at what she was suggesting.

"Oh my lord" Sharon's mouth twisted into an almost feral grin.

"You don't know the half of it" My mind went blank for a moment, before racing over any number of possible scenarios, many of which were either very shocking or very hot.

"And…" Sharon just grinned at me; obviously realising I wasn't sure where she was leading. "C'mon Sharon" I could hear the whine in my voice but at least it got Sharon to take pity on me.

"Apparently Natalie and Maura had a contest going, they spent most of late Saturday night and early Sunday morning seeing which of them could make their respective partners scream loudest" My rational mind went blank for a moment, as dozens of images paraded past my mind's eye in an erotic kaleidoscope. I could feel my cheeks blush as a flash of heat ran through me, pooling in my groin.

"Oh my lord" My voice came out low, throaty and shaky, causing Sharon to laugh at me. "That is so…" Sharon made a keep going motion with her hand. "…damn hot" I eventually finished. She laughed.

"Oh yeah, it sure is. One night we're going to same club, with them" I felt a rush as I contemplated the experience, dancing with Sharon, in a girl's-only club.

"What were you thinking just then Brenda?" I looked up at her from under my lashes, wondering if I could really tell her what I had been thinking. Why not, we'd talked about more intimate stuff recently.

"I was thinking about what they could be doing to each other" Sharon just smiled.

"And what might that be, any ideas?"

"I might have done some research, online" Sharon just burst out laughing, ignoring the glare I shot her, before she finally subsided.

"Oh really, any particular favourites?" I was still formulating a reply when Sarah wandered over to take our meal orders, fortunately saving me from having to answer that question. Orders placed, Sharon leaned back and smiled at me, her eyes dancing.

"Online research though; Brenda, I'm shocked. I thought you were a good girl" I looked down at the table top.

"I can be, when I want" Her voice was gently teasing.

"And when you don't?" I looked up to see the smirk on her face. Deciding two could play at that game, I let my voice drop and get playful.

"I can be a bad girl too" I saw that one hit home, as her eyes widened for a second, before narrowing.

I realised we were flirting, I'd done this with guys, but this was a first, with a woman, with Sharon, but it was fun, to see her realise what I was doing to her.

"I'm sure you could be, when you're in the mood" Her mouth twisted into a grin. "Research, really? Find anything interesting?" I blushed.

"There's certainly a lot out there, especially if you take off the filter on Google. Both images and videos" Sharon's voice had got lower as well.

"There is that. Was your research…hands on?" I felt my cheeks burn.

"No, mostly doing background research, the sort of thing you need to do before undertaking any practical work" her tone was teasing.

"Well, I suppose it's like cramming for a test, you just have to immerse yourself in the subject matter"

"I do have one question you might be able to help me with sweetie, given your extensive experience" Sharon leaned forward.

"Oh?"

"Why do they all wear high heels in bed? Must be murder on the sheets" Sharon' laugh was quick and happy.

"That would be the result of pandering to the male demographic honey. Guys just love a woman in high heels, no matter how impractical it might be"

I nodded at that, I walked down a corridor in heels and men's heads just naturally turned at the sound. Not just men either I realised, remembering how my head came up when I heard heels coming down the corridor into the squad room, wondering if it would be Natalie or Sharon, Anastasia or Maura.

I remembered how I'd admired Sharon's legs in heels and moistened my lips, which seemed to be drying out a lot tonight.

"What about you Sharon, do you like a woman in heels?" Her smile was slow and sexy.

"I love a sexy woman in heels; it's a weakness of mine. On the right woman, the right set of heels can look devastating, the higher the better"

I caught my lower lip in my teeth, suddenly glad that the girls had insisted on the four inch heels for the shoes that matched my new dress.

"I trust you to remember that Sharon Raydor, especially this Saturday night. I'm looking forward to seeing what you're wearing; you're all set, aren't you?"

"All set" I smiled happily. Sharon was nice when she was just dressed for work; dressed up to the nines she'd be stunning. As a warm feeling started at that thought I tried to distract myself.

"It'll be interesting seeing what the girls wear to the Ball. They all look nice normally so they should look good dressed up an all" Sharon's voice was low and full of wonder.

"You have no idea" I looked up at her, the question on my face.

"What?"

"I asked Natalie if she had any shots from their night out, so she sent me some photos they took with her phone" I sat up, reaching out.

"Gimme" Raising an eyebrow at my eagerness she reached in and pulled her fancy iPhone out, opening an application and handing across.

"Scroll right for the rest of the pictures" I smiled a thanks at her as I took it, before looking at the first image, at which point my mind came to a screeching halt.

"Oh. My. Lord" Sharon's voice was dry.

"Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction actually"

I scrolled through the images, my mouth suddenly dry. Jane and Maura, Natalie and Ana, Jane and Ana then Maura and Natalie, then finally a shot of the four of them together, obviously taken by someone else, a succession of images that burned themselves into my brain.

They looked like crosses between models and porn stars, almost unrecognisable as the crisply efficient corporate or law enforcement people I knew. I looked up from the phone.

"Well, um…wow" Sharon's voice was dry as dust.

"Yeah, that pretty much summed up my response as well when I received them" I shook my head slowly, not quite believing it.

"And you want to take me out to that club, with them looking like that, wearing stuff like that?" She grinned lazily.

"Actually I do. I'm sure we can come up with something appropriate, or inappropriate as the case may be" She shrugged, "I think you'd look hot, something like Natalie and Maura's outfit would look good on you"

I scrolled back to the shot of Natalie and Maura, trying to imagine wearing something like that, out in public, to a gay nightclub. Then I noticed the looks on their faces, they were obviously so happy, so carefree, even Jane was so obviously having a wonderful time, the joy on her face was a wonder, the smile stretching from ear to ear as Maura leaned in to plant a kiss on her cheek.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all.

"And what exactly would you be wearing Sharon?" She smiled.

"I was thinking something along the lines of Ana's outfit" She shrugged gently. "I like leather" Her casual comment hit me as I stared down at the shots of Anastasia. Imagining Sharon dressed like that. Oh god. I looked up at her.

"You'd wear something like this?" She at least had the grace to blush slightly.

"Well perhaps not exactly like that, Ana has a much better body than me, but something like that, yes" Noting my stare she smiled. "I have a number of pieces of leather clothing in my closet. Not exactly work wear, but I like them"

I sat there for a moment, realising how truly little I really knew about the woman sitting opposite me, how much I still had to learn. I couldn't let the implied challenge go unanswered though.

"I'd wear something like Maura's wearing, if you wear what Ana's got on" Sharon looked at me for a second, before swallowing. I smiled. "Deal" To her credit, she didn't hesitate.

"Deal"

I looked down at the photos again. Oh god, what had I just signed up for? I had to admit though; they looked good, all of them. I could imagine they would be the centre of attention in any club, dressed like that. Maybe I could sort of skulk unnoticed in the background, let them attract the attention while I danced with Sharon.

I looked up at Sharon, who had a distracted, faraway look on her face. I wondered if she was thinking about dancing in a club, dressed like that. I sure as hell was.

Unfortunately, before I could ask what she was dreaming of, Sarah arrived with our dinners and we tucked into dinner. We were both hungry as we concentrated on food for a few minutes.

When we slowed down I looked up at her and frowned. As much as I liked sitting here flirting, work kept insinuating its way back into my mind.

The _Brenda Leigh_ part of me was concentrating on eating, leaving the _Chief Johnson_ part of me free to drag the OIS stuff back up.

I'd never really had a close look at the work she did with OIS investigations, short of being on the receiving end of them either mine or some of the squad. I'd always known that our shootings were clean and insisted that we try and clear them up as quickly as possible.

I had no idea the problem was as bad as it was. To say I was shocked by the Robbery Homicide OIS stats was a massive understatement. Not only the number of them, but the attempts by R/H officers to delay and confuse the issue to cover for their own, making the investigation much harder than it should have to be.

I was still trying to work out why, when I had a thought, but I put it aside until after we finished and could talk it through.

Once we had both finished some lovely Fettuccini Marinara in my case and Spaghetti Bolognese on hers, I dragged us back to her case.

"Sharon getting back to your OIS, have you asked the question, Cui bono?" Sharon frowned.

"Who benefits? I'm not sure I follow you"

"Dimery's now dead. Who's interests are advanced by his death?"

"I'm not sure; I don't see Kennedy or Powell getting anything out of his death, except a grilling from me"

"Did he have other enemies, people who might have wanted him taken out of the picture?"

She frowned, thinking it over.

"I'm not sure, I'll have to pull his files again and look at possible connections…"

"I'm just wondering who would want him dead. I mean we really have only three real options here. One, it was an accidental shooting" Sharon shook her head.

"The evidence doesn't support that" I nodded.

"Agreed. The second is that Kennedy, aided and abetted by Powell accidentally shot and killed Dimery and is trying to cover it up" Sharon nodded in agreement.

"That was what I was thinking, that it was an accident that got out of hand and they're desperately trying to cover it up. What's the third reason?"

"That Kennedy and Powell deliberately shot and killed Dimery and that when response arrived before they could get out of there they planted the weapon and reverted back to claiming it was an arrest gone wrong" Sharon's eyes widened.

"Why would they do that?"

"They either went vigilante on him, or someone else wanted Dimery dead"

Sharon looked shocked as she realised what I was suggesting.

"Brenda, I'm not sure I like where your train of thought is leading" I spread my hands helplessly.

"You think I do? But if we accept that it wasn't a righteous shoot, which I will remind you is your hypothesis, then we have to look at motive" Sharon chewed her lip for a while, staring through and past me as she considered what I'd suggested.

"Shit Brenda, what you're suggesting…" I grimaced at the implications.

"Yeah, dirty cops, doing hits. I want to be wrong; I really do, but it's up to you to prove me wrong" She looked pensive.

"I'll drag out Powell and Kennedy's OIS files and go over them again" I nodded.

"I'm happy to go over them with you Sharon" She caught her bottom lip between white, even teeth.

"We're going to have to do this very quietly Brenda, if this gets out…" I nodded slowly.

"Yeah, can't get your or my squad involved right now, it's going to have to be you and me"

"God, I hope you're wrong" I closed my eyes and squeezed the bridge of my nose to try and head off the incoming headache.

"Me too, I really, really want to find out they fucked up the bust and tried to cover it up, it's a more palatable alternative to my theory" Sharon looked concerned.

"We'll have to be careful about it. This could blow up in our faces if we're not very careful" I suddenly thought of something.

"What about your 72 hour deadline? You're already almost halfway through it" She shrugged.

"I can deliver an open finding, pending an ongoing investigation. It's rare but not unheard of"

"Open finding?"

"Basically means I don't have enough information one way or another. It usually applies to shootings where both officer and suspect are dead, but I can stretch it out to cover this one"

"How tired are you Sharon?" She leaned back, a curious look on her face.

"Tired, but no more than usual, why?" I smiled.

"I was thinking we could head back to your office and have another look over the files, spend a few hours looking to prove my hypothesis wrong" Sharon looked surprised.

"You sure about this honey?" I grinned.

"Sure am, we haven't worked a case together for a while, we're about due" Sharon nodded slowly as I caught Sarah's attention and she wandered right over. I smiled up at her.

"Hi Sarah, could we please have the bill, plus two very big, very strong long blacks to go" She nodded.

"How strong Brenda?"

"A late night's worth of work strong if you could, we have a pile of work to do and we'll need the caffeine"

"Coming right up" I looked up at Sharon.

"You ready sweetie?' She nodded, her face settling into the familiar Commander Raydor game face.

"Let's do this" She looked at me as she stood. "I pray to god you're wrong Brenda"

"Me too Sharon, me too"


	65. Chapter 65

**Stalking the sniper**

Natalie's viewpoint

I could make out the sea of uniforms surrounding the scene before I pulled up, there's nothing like a call of an officer down to attract attention.

Yesterday we'd celebrated the arrival of a Tuesday morning without a call out to the scene of a sniper attack. The Major Crimes squad, Maura, Ana and I had quietly celebrated with coffee and some homemade cookies Michael Tao's wife had made, beyond pleased that through our combined efforts we'd saved a life. Now all that we had to do was find Charlotte Weaver before she could kill again.

Now it was a late Wednesday morning and here I was rolling out to what looked like some more of her work.

I parked nearby and made my way to the scene, as several of the media spotted me and tried to get a statement, calling out to me and trying to get a camera in my face as I approached the police crime scene tape. I paused for a moment to make a quick statement.

"As you can see, I've only just arrived, let me get the facts straight and I'll be right back to you"

Dodging the camera's and stepping under the tape, I flashed my ID at the uniforms trying to keep the scene clear of rubberneckers and hold the media back, hoping to give their fellow officers some shreds of dignity in death.

Brenda and the team had been called late; it was only the report of a white van at the scene of the shooting that had popped up as a flag on the despatcher's computer, leading to a notice to Major Crimes. As I approached the scene, I could see Brenda assigning tasks to the squad as we waited for Maura and her people to arrive; they had left right after me so they should be here in the next few minutes.

I took in the scene, a lone Black and White by the side of the road and two officers down in pools of blood. I paused to kneel for a moment near the closest body, murmuring a short prayer for these two officers, their families and friends. I could feel several uniforms looking at me curiously, but they gave me a moment alone.

Policing's a dangerous job, there were over two hundred names on the LAPDs honour roll, in the time I'd been here I'd seen four more added; Officers Kelly and Liao at the cartel shooting and now this.

It was bad enough sending Ana out each morning, even though she wasn't a uniform on the street, her work kept her from the random violence of a beat cop's life. I sometimes wondered how Maura handled the stress. Better than I did obviously.

Finally, looking up to where the Chief was standing, I rose and made my way over towards her, standing near enough to hear what was happening but far enough away to stay out of her way until we could talk.

Buzz was filming the site, as Flynn and Tao examined the bodies. Sanchez and Jane were talking to witnesses while Provenza was on the phone, talking to someone.

"Ah Natalie, you're here"

"Hi Chief, sorry I took so long, traffic's a mess and I don't have a siren" She nodded, looking preoccupied, hardly a surprise. "What happened?"

"From initial statements it appears that Officer Mullins pulled a white van over, probably to hand out a traffic citation. While Officer Black checked the rego number on the database, Cory Mullins walked up to the driver's side door. It appears Weaver was waiting and immediately shot him in the face, the wound was instantly fatal" I closed my eyes; at least it had been quick.

"Weaver then stepped out of the car and took several steps to clear the back of the van, just as Nicki Black was getting out of the cruiser. Her first shot hit Nikki and dropped her, subsequent shots killed her" I flinched; Brenda's matter of fact delivery wasn't really helping.

"Weaver fired several more shots before getting back into the van and driving off. We have an alert out, now we have the registration to work with"

"How do you know it was Weaver?" She shrugged.

"Eyewitnesses descriptions match, a powerfully built dark-haired woman with a notable limp" I nodded. Brenda grimaced. "It also fits for another reason"

"Oh?"

Brenda led me around the Back and White to where Officer Black's body lay sprawled next to the car door covered by a sheet, before kneeling and lifting the sheet. Looking at the ruin of her face, I almost vomited.

"We think she fired four or five shots into poor Nicki's face, totally destroying it. Talking to her fellow officers from Rampart Division, she was regarded as particularly pretty" I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to centre myself. I could deal with this I told myself, I could. I sighed before replying.

"Well, we both know what Weaver thinks of attractive women" Brenda nodded, laying the sheet down again.

"We're pulling the footage from the Black and White's surveillance camera, so we'll have some video soon. I'll want to get that out to media right away"

"No problem. What do you want me to tell the media Brenda?"

"The usual, any information, report anything to police and under no circumstances approach her"

"I'll get it out as soon as I can"

Maura, obviously just arrived, walked up and greeted us.

"Brenda, Natalie, sorry I'm late, traffic was horrendous"

I stepped aside as her team moved towards the bodies. She nodded at me as Brenda filled her in, while I stepped back to give them room to move.

Getting out of the way I walked back over to where Andy Flynn was standing.

"Hey Nat"

"Morning Andy" He nodded towards the Black and White.

"Not a good one though" I sighed and nodded.

"It never is"

"That Weaver chick must have completely gone off her rocker, shooting down cops in the street, let alone what she did to Nicki" I looked at him, he was showing some the pain.

"You knew her?"

"Yeah, kinda, we played on different teams in the LAPD bowling league"

"I'm sorry Andy, I really am" He nodded slowly, sadly.

"She really has lost it hasn't she"

"I expect that she wasn't all that stable beforehand, when we worked out who her victims were and got them away from her, it may have pushed her over the edge" I shrugged. "We won't know until we find her" His voice was tired.

"She was only shooting one person a week before, god knows what she'll do now" I pursed my lips, thinking of the worst case scenario.

"She may end up seeing LA as a free fire war zone; hopefully we can find her before she starts shooting indiscriminately" He nodded.

"Just what we need, a sniper with millions of potential targets, as if this mess wasn't bad enough" He shook his head. ""We've got a BOLO on the van's licence plate, though I expect she'll ditch that soon enough, now we know the number"

I nodded. Weaver would probably dump it somewhere and try and disappear again. As I looked around I could see the media pack growing restless. I took a breath; time to go to work.

"Excuse me Andy, I have work to do" His eyes followed mine to take in the crowd of cameras and he scowled.

"Better you than me, damned vultures" I nodded and patted his shoulder before making my way towards the waiting pack, who started baying as I got closer.

"Natalie, can we get a word"

"Why is this a major crimes case?"

"When will there be a media conference?"

"Can we speak to Chief Johnson?"

"Nat, can we get you on camera?"

"Who were the dead officers?"

"Natalie, over here please…"

"Can we get a statement?"

I held up my hand and ignored their shouts. Eventually they quietened.

'_Show time_'

"I will answer each of your questions, but one at a time please people. Now, to answer your questions, a statement will be issued shortly, as soon as we have the facts straight. We will be releasing video footage of the incident as soon as we can and Chief Johnson will not be available for an interview at this time" I paused as the questions started again. Again I held up my hand.

"Major Crimes Division is involved due to the potential implications this tragic incident has for an ongoing open case currently under investigation" I swept my eyes over the assembled crews, picking out logos and identifying key people to background later.

"We will be releasing the names of our slain officers as soon as we can, as you are all aware, it is imperative that we notify their families and loved ones first" I took a breath.

"The LAPD will be issuing in car surveillance footage of this morning's incident and we will be seeking the public's help in locating the person responsible. We'll have that footage out to you as soon as possible" I looked around and smiled as I mentally braced for the assault.

"Now, are there any questions?"


	66. Chapter 66

**Digging deeper**

Sharon's viewpoint

For the third night in a row Brenda and I were going over files and leads late into the night.

We'd set up in my office as no one willingly came anywhere near FID if they could help it, ensuring we weren't disturbed. Brenda would order our dinner delivered around seven and bring it down to my office and we'd start.

When we'd first started digging I really thought we'd not find anything, that it was a bungled arrest gone wrong. Unfortunately as we dug further we started to see patterns emerging that had me worried.

In two of Kennedy's previous OIS investigations, he'd been investigating an anonymous tip which had gone wrong, leaving a dead victim. Both cases had been resolved as an appropriate use of force given the evidence available, but looking back at them from a different viewpoint it became apparent that the similarities were starting to stack up.

I concentrated on looking at the OIS files while Brenda dived into the investigation files, looking at how Kennedy and Powell had come to be at Dimery's apartment and at the victim's background.

Around ten thirty Brenda had looked up at me and dragged my attention back from a prior OIS file.

"Sharon, don't you think it's a little strange that Mr Dimery doesn't seem to really exist much before three and a half years ago?"

"What do you mean" She shrugged.

"I mean there's records for driver's licences and the like before that, but their all pretty non-descript, almost suspiciously so. Do you honestly believe that someone can live in LA for decades and have no meaningful interaction with law enforcement or the city and California bureaucracy?"

"None, none at all?" She shook her head.

"I mean there's the usual stuff, but it's all vanilla, all pro forma stuff. As for actual personal interactions, there's practically none until a little over three years ago" I frowned, a memory stirring, something from a very long time ago. Standing, I walked over to stand behind Brenda, looking over her shoulder as she tapped a printout on her lap.

"See, everything before this date was just an automated receipt, it's only after then that we see cash payments, credit cards, signatures, all the evidence of a real person. Before that, nada"

Resting my left hand on her left shoulder, I leaned over her right to get a better look as I took in the information Brenda had highlighted, suddenly becoming intimately aware of how close we were standing. Close enough that her hair was tickling my cheek, close enough that I could take in her orchid scent of her perfume and the gentle coconut smell of her shampoo. I had to concentrate to focus on what she was showing me.

Turning my attention to the papers Brenda was holding, my suspicions suddenly crystallised. I'd seen something like this before, years ago.

"I think I might have an answer Brenda. I think Dimery was in Witness Security, I've encountered something like this before. I had a murder victim who was in Witsec, over a decade ago and it turned out their background looked just like that, the pre-fabricated background they do before dropping someone into a new identity" I felt her curls brush my cheek as she nodded.

"Makes sense, it'd explain why he seemed to just appear as a person all at once, everything before that was getting a background set up. He only became Dimery three and a half years ago" I nodded, all too aware of how close we were, I should step back, but acting on an impulse, I turned my head and kissed her softly on the cheek, then stood up

"Nice job honey" I looked down at Brenda to see her blushing, before she turned to look up at me with a shy smile on her lips.

"If that's the reward I get for doing a good job, I should work with you more often" I laughed as I walked around her, lightly trailing one hand across her shoulders as I did, before making my way back to my seat.

"If we're right, we need to find out some more information" Brenda nodded.

"We could get Maura to have a look at Dimery again, check if he's had any cosmetic surgery" I considered that for a bit as Brenda had a thought.

"Should we ask Ana to make some enquiries with the FBI?"I thought about that for a moment, before realising who managed the program.

"We could, but we really need to have a chat to the Justice Department, they oversee the WitSec program" Brenda gave that some thought.

"You have any contacts in Justice you can trust?" I nodded, remembering someone I dealt with there on other matters.

"Yeah, one of the senior guys over there, he'll give me a hearing at least" Brenda looked thoughtful as she considered my words.

"I suppose that's all we could hope for really"

"I'll make the call tomorrow morning" She nodded before turning her attention back to the files in front of her, sorting through and pulling two out for closer inspection.

About 10 minutes later Brenda looked up.

"When you're talking to your Justice Department contact, ask them about these two as well; Jose Rodriguez and Hector Garcia. Both look like they have the same manufactured backgrounds, same as Dimery. I'm guessing both were WitSec covers as well" I felt sick to my stomach.

"Oh shit, all three?" Brenda nodded distractedly, flipping between sheets in two different files.

"Looks like. Same backgrounds, nothing personal until a certain date, then a more normal pattern, so if you're right about Dimery being WitSec, then I'd bet both of these were too" I thought that over, not liking where my train of thought was taking me.

"If you're right, Kennedy was fingering WitSec relocatee's via supposedly anonymous tip offs then gunning them down" Brenda chewed her bottom lip for a moment.

"But why risk the chance of being discovered. I mean a FID investigation's no fun and he might've been caught in any of them"

"I'm not so sure. In both previous cases he was cleared, mostly on the evidence provided by his partner, Powell…" Brenda finished that thought.

"Who has to be in on it to make it work? Oh Sharon, this looks very bad" I nodded, feeling a scowl appearing on my face at the thought of rogue cops.

"You're telling me, I've had a sick feeling on this since you first suggested it. In particular that I should have caught it much earlier" Brenda wasn't buying that, her voice was firm.

"You didn't have the evidence you had in this one, plus Maura's autopsy results to raise your suspicions, without them you would've had no choice but to clear the shoot" I nodded slowly.

"But what's in it for them? They must be getting something in return?" Brenda frowned at the file I front of her for a good 30 seconds before speaking.

"Can we get access to their financial records? I mean I can't without a court order but does FID have some kind of special ability…" I shook my head.

"No, I'd need a court order as well. We couldn't keep that quiet for long, snooping around in a fellow officer's financials attracts attention and people would talk" Brenda pursed her lips for a moment.

"What about a request via the FBI. We could ask Anastasia for help" I thought about it for a second.

"We could, but we'd have to brief her in on why"

"Well, we could meet her for coffee and brief her outside the building, keep it quiet as possible" I thought about that, it might work.

"OK, let's see if we can set up something in the morning"

With that we both went back to work, cross referencing information in different files, looking for similarities. After another half hour of that I leaned back in the chair and stretched, before settling back to look at my companion.

I contemplated Brenda sitting in the none-too comfortable chair on the other side of my desk, balancing two files and a notepad and pen as she compared information and made notes.

"Y'know honey, when I envisioned spending nights with you, this wasn't quite how I saw it happening" She looked up and grinned at me.

"Oh really? How'd you see it?"

"I don't know, I sort of imagined dinner, dancing, kissing and cuddling, that sort of thing" I shrugged, trying to make it not sound like that big a deal, but Brenda saw right through me, hitting me with her trademark 1000 watt smile.

"Why Sharon, you romantic softie you" I felt my cheeks warm.

"Don't tell anyone, my reputation as the Ice Queen of the LAPD would be ruined" Her laughter was warm and rich.

"Oh sweetie, that reputation was shot with me a long time ago"

"Well as long as it's only with you then that's ok" She winked at me.

"Your secret is safe with me" We shared a smile before going back to work.

We were both silent for a few minutes as we flipped papers before Brenda spoke again, her voice light and teasing.

"Shouldn't we be doing the whole dating thing sweetie? I'd hate for you to think I was going to tumble into bed with just anyone" I smiled at the image of Brenda 'tumbling into bed' before replying.

"Honey, I thought that's what we've been doing for the past 12 months?" Her voice was soft as her warm brown eyes met mine and a smile appeared.

"Oh, yeah, that" I couldn't stop teasing her.

"Well what else would you call what we've been doing" Her smile grew into a grin.

"Really Sharon? Here I was thinking you were being my friend and now I find out your intentions weren't entirely honourable" I matched her grin.

"Honey, my intentions are entirely honourable. I want you to make an honest woman of me"

"Really, I thought it was the other way round"

"Nope, I'm the scarlet woman corrupting you; it's up to you to save me" I didn't miss her smirk.

"Sweetie, I can't even save myself, let alone you" I lifted one eyebrow at her.

"Then we're both going to hell in a hand basket aren't we?"

"Nothings changed then, has it?" We laughed for a moment, before subsiding into smiles. We returned to flipping pages and comparing files for a few minutes before her voice came to me, soft and pensive.

"You don't mind waiting on me do you Sharon?" I looked up; I couldn't hide the surprise on my face.

"Of course not honey, why would I?" Brenda looked uncertain, cute but uncertain.

"You sure? I know it must be hard on you"

"To be honest, I'm actually really enjoying the flirting and the teasing and the whole going slow thing" Brenda looked at me over her glasses for a moment, obviously trying to work out if I was telling the truth. She must have realised I meant every word of it, as she favoured me with a small, sly smile.

"Good, cause I'm enjoying it too" I couldn't let it go without revving her up a bit.

"Besides, I like to accessorise and I think you'd be perfect?" It had the desired effect as she yelped in mock outrage.

"Accessorise?!"

"Yep, I pick the accessories in my house with a lot of care and I can't think of anything that would improve the look and feel of my bedroom more than seeing you decorating my bed"

That got me a blush; a shake of her head and a quiet grin as she turned her attention back to the papers on her lap, making me smile even more.

We were silent for a long time; until Brenda finally closed the files she was reading and dropped the files on the floor.

"God I need a coffee" I nodded wearily.

"Me too, but it's too late to go out and get one, so we'll have to settle for instant from the kitchen" She pulled a face, which I couldn't blame her for.

"It's almost better than nothing I suppose" Standing, she motioned for me to follow her. "You need one too so c'mon"

"Can't you make me one?" Her smirk was priceless.

"Sharon, we're not even sleeping together and you already want me to wait on you hand and foot? C'mon, you need the stretch anyway" I couldn't argue with that. Standing I groaned at the stiffened muscles.

"I need to go to the bathroom anyway so coffee sounds good too"

Meeting her in the kitchen, Brenda handed me a hot coffee and I wrapped my hands around the cup, savouring the warmth. Brenda smiled at me; sipping her own coffee and pulling a face at the taste as we stood there leaning back against the bench, side by side.

"Well its coffee I s'pose, but I wouldn't want to swear to that under oath"

"You're just spoilt, too good for instant" She smiled and winked at me.

"Damn right, I should ring Ana and ask if she delivers, that girl makes a mean cup of coffee" I grinned.

"I think Ana has better things to be doing this late on a Thursday night than bringing us coffee" Brenda smiled into her coffee.

"Yeah, like Natalie" I chuckled.

"Can't say I blame her, I'd much rather be snuggled up to a hot blonde in bed right now too. Unfortunately Natalie's taken, so I'll have to find another one" Brenda's chuckle joined mine.

"Well don't look at Maura, she's took too" I mock frowned.

"Damn, I'll have to find another hot blonde. There's not that many available, they're in short supply really" I raised an eyebrow at her, getting a smirk in return.

"I honestly don't know where you'd find one at this time of night, I mean it is…" She made a show of checking her phone. "…almost 11.30 at night after all. I mean, who you gonna call, Blonde's R Us?"

"Nah, I tried, but they couldn't supply one who wasn't a bimbo, apparently the smart ones are rare and they were all out of stock" I got an elbow in the side from Brenda.

"I'll have you know that's a dreadful cliché Sharon. I expected better from you" I let my voice drop to a purr.

"Well then Chief, I guess I'll have to make it up to you in other ways" That got me a sidelong glance from under her long lashes and a teasing tone.

"Oh really, and how might you do that"

"How about I take you out this Saturday night, we could do dinner, dancing the whole romance thing" She laughed at me.

"Right, in front of Pope and half the LAPD, I'll pass on that. Between that and long nights spent with old files you sure know how to show a girl a good time" I smiled at the teasing tone in her voice.

"Yeah, well, neither of us had a better offer for the evening"

"Hey, I don't mind, I like spending time with you. I did even before everything changed" I turned to see her smiling at me. I smiled back and let my tone drop.

"I like spending time with you too. There's nowhere I'd rather be" I watched the scepticism grow on her face.

"Really Sharon, there's really nowhere else you'd rather us be?" I caught the smile trying to break through.

"Well, that's not exactly true, I could imagine other places I'd rather be with you at almost midnight and other things I'd rather be doing, but for now this is the place I want to be" I watched the smile spread across her face and realised just how lucky I was.

Deciding to strike while the iron was hot, I slowly leaned in, giving her time to pull away if she wanted, but she didn't move, as I gently kissed her, softly, not pushing it but loving the thought that I was kissing Brenda Leigh and she was kissing me back.

It was sweet and tender and felt wonderful and I didn't want it to end but finally Brenda pulled back, a small look of wonder on her face.

"Oh my, that was nice" I tried to hide how much it had affected me as well but my voice still came out soft and quiet.

"Yes it was, very, very nice" We stood there for a moment, our heads close, just soaking up the closeness and the intimacy. Finally she leaned back.

"I s'pose we should try and wrap up this side of midnight, we're going to be busy tomorrow and we are not working back tomorrow night" I raised an eyebrow.

"We're not?" Her tone was firm.

"No, the Ball is Saturday night and we both need a full night's sleep tomorrow night, we are not staying here to midnight Friday going over dusty old files when we'll have a late night the following day" I nodded, she was right.

"True, gotta look good at the Ball, there's this person there I want to impress" She smiled into her coffee.

"Oh really, anyone I know?"

"You might, a pretty blonde, very pretty actually" Brenda made a play of thinking it over.

"Hmm, only ones I know that fit that description are Maura and Natalie and I think they're both spoken for" I smiled.

"Nope, another one" Brenda's tone was light and teasing.

"Oh her, you don't want to waste your time on her, she's taken"

"Oh really, who?"

"I understand she's seeing this really attractive brunette, they're dating actually, so she's off the market" I laughed, enjoying the easy intimacy and the gentle teasing.

"Oh, so I've missed my chance with her, damn" Brenda just turned and rinsed her empty cup in the sink. Her voice was soft.

"I wouldn't say that, I think you always had a chance, she just didn't know it" I was silent, taking in what she was saying.

I went to say something but Brenda just leaned in and kissed me, light and gentle and soft. For a moment I just enjoyed the contact, before gently reaching up to place my hand on her shoulder, as I pulled her gently in, holding the kiss.

Brenda's mouth opened just a fraction and I felt her tongue gently touch my lips, to be met by mine. For a second they just touched gently, teasing and touching before her tongue pulled back, offering entrance to mine.

I oh so gently probed forward, not wishing to push her boundaries too hard, but feeling the warmth of her mouth envelop my tongue and tasting the coffee aftertaste in her mouth. I don't know how long we stood there, before Brenda slowly pulled away, breathing slightly hard.

We stood there for a moment, our faces so close it would have been so easy to just push in for another kiss, but I resisted the incredible temptation.

"Mmm, nice" I smiled happily; I'd loved just kissing her. It made me happy and warm in ways that I hadn't felt in years.

"Honey, the pleasure was all mine"

"Oh no Sharon, I can attest that it wasn't all yours"

We stood there for a moment, the silly, happy expression on her face a match for mine. It felt so right, we were going slowly but I didn't care, it felt like old time courting and that brought its own special charm and joy.

I slowly leaned in and placed a gentle teasing kiss on her lips, leaning back before it deepened again.

"We'd better wrap up, it's getting late and if I start kissing you like that again, we'll be here for the rest of the night" Brenda's laugh was soft and happy.

"Good point sweetie, I don't know about you but I don't want my team seeing me in the same clothes two days running, they might start getting some strange ideas about what their boss has been up to" I smiled back at her.

"Excellent point; I suppose we should finish up"

I slowly trailed after her as she sashayed out of the kitchen and back to my office, enjoying the view as her hips swung and her skirt swished as she walked. I had a smile on my face as I watched, only to see her look back and catch me watching. _'Oops, busted'. _Brenda smirked at me as my eyes met hers, a tad guiltily.

"That's hardly lady-like behaviour Commander Raydor" I matched her smirk.

"Chief Johnson, whatever made you think I was a lady?" Brenda winked at me.

"Obviously I was misinformed"

"Yes, I'll have to set you straight"

"Oh Sharon, I thought my problem was that I was too straight"

"We're working on that honey, give it time"

"As much as you need sweetie, but given how much I enjoyed kissing you, I think the jobs almost done"

I just stood there for a moment stunned, replaying Brenda's statement as she disappeared through the door. _'Damn'_. I felt a warmth spread through me and another silly smile break out on my face. Brenda's voice floated through the door, rich with laughter, she knew exactly what she'd done to me.

"You comin' Sharon, or are you just breathin' hard?" I had to stifle a laugh.

'_Oh that woman'_


	67. Chapter 67

**The LAPD Ball Part 1**

Anastasia's viewpoint

I might give Nat grief about it from time to time, but there are times it feels good to be a woman. Today was pampering day, getting ready for tonight's Ball. We'd gone off to a beauty and health spa, had a manicure, pedicure, exfoliating scrub, facial, full body massage, scalp massage, hair shampoo and conditioning, aromatherapy, full body wax, the entire works, you name it, we'd had it.

I didn't dare ask how much a day like this costs, but when Nat puts her foot down and insists on something we absolutely have to do, I've learnt that one, it doesn't pay to argue and two, the results are usually well worth it.

By the time we were done and emerged we'd been in there for about five hours and I felt great. Natalie looked wonderful in a light sundress and sandals, she practically glowed with health and her skin was so soft to the touch I just wanted to take her home and spend the rest of the day making intimate contact with every possible inch of her.

She'd laughingly stepped back out of my grasp as I went to grab her, shaking a finger at me warningly.

"No Tsarina, absolutely, definitely not, we didn't spend all day in there for me not to show you off to the world and let them see you looking deliciously feminine and lovely. We are not going home and making love all night, at least not until after the Ball" I tried the puppy dog eyes but she wasn't having a bar of it.

"No, we have to head home and get ready. I did not spend the week taking care of you and getting you healed up for tonight to waste it with another session right now" I looked at her and smiled.

Natalie had spent the week being amazingly solicitous of me, trying to get the scratches on my back and the bite marks on my neck and shoulders healed up for tonight, right down to rubbing lotions and creams in to speed the healing. Not that I was complaining, when we had made love this week it had all been slow and soft and great. I like a hard ride as much as the next girl, but there's something slow and sensual and loving about coming wrapped in your lover's arms.

"Oh, thinking of leaving some more marks on me?"

"Not tonight, that dress shows way too much of your lovely skin to leave any marks there, at least not until after the ball" As we made our way back to her car she cast a speculative eye over me.

"Mind you, if anyone starts getting ideas, I suppose I could drag you into a corner and leave a mark there just to tell everyone your mine"

"I'm the one more likely to be scaring off the shark's Blondie, maybe I should leave a little reminder of who you belong to" She favoured me with one of her amazingly warm smiles as she unlocked the door.

"I think that you're likely to be attracting attention tonight, you really look lovely" I rolled my eyes at her; she really is too good to me, not to mention being good for my ego. She got in and unlocked my door, no fancy central locking in Winnie, which is the name she's given her red MGB, short for Winston Churchill, something else quintessentially British.

As I sat down and belted up, she leaned across and gave me a long lingering kiss, before sitting back and smiling at me.

"That was for being such a good sport about today" I smiled, both at the kiss and the compliment.

"Hey, we got to spend all day together being pampered, I call that a good day in my book"

By the time we got home I was starving, so I made some snacks to get us through until dinner at the Ball, while Natalie got started on a shower and getting ready.

I made us some salt and pepper calamari, a favourite of both of us and took it in to where she was getting ready. One look at her standing in front of the dresser in peach La Perla lace lingerie and I was ready to eat something else entirely, but she laughed and pushed me away, so I shared the calamari and ducked in for a shower.

30 minutes later I walked out to find my clothes either laid out on the bed or hanging waiting for me. While I can dress myself very well thank you, Nat loves to dress me up and see me looking feminine, it makes her happy and she has excellent taste, so who am I to say no?

Tonight was a white silk and lace bustier and g string teamed with a wonderful white Alexander McQueen gown we'd bought just on a year ago. Strapless with a split up the left leg, this would be its first outing here in LA. It was also a favourite of Nat's, which made it one of mine too.

The shoes were white patent leather stilettos, with heels almost six inches high. It took a lot of effort to learn to be graceful in them, but given Nat has a four inch head start on me; I need the height to look good next to her. I put on the gold necklace and pendant her parents gave me for my last birthday, gold drop earrings and grabbed the gold clutch before I set off looking for Nat.

I found her in the kitchen, sorting things into her clutch. Standing in the doorway, I paused to admire her as she stood there, unaware I was watching her.

The dress she was wearing was a lovely one, a black high neck satin dress, with silver working around the neck, almost a necklace in itself, which was cut finely down the sides of the chest, tantalising with what it almost revealed, backless, shoulder-less and cut very low, I could see the dimples just above the swell of her ass. Below the waist it billowed out, allowing her to walk or dance unimpeded, with a modest split showing just enough leg to be interesting.

The three inch strappy silver sandals were a match for the silver bracelet on her left wrist and a silver armlet on her right bicep, bright against her light tan. Her new opal earrings were in and she looked stunning.

I loved her more than life itself and I knew she loved me but there were times, when I saw her like this, made up and dressed to impress, that I wonder how I ever got so unbelievably lucky. Her hair was hanging with a hint of a wave and her makeup was subtle, with lip gloss and pale pink varnish on her nails, all in all she looked utterly amazing.

As she turned she caught me standing there and I saw her eyes run up and down, taking me in and obviously liking what she saw. The flash of possessive heat in her eyes started a slow burn in me as I realised that I belonged to her and she belonged to me. I smiled softly as she stalked over to me, her heels clicking on the tiles. Her voice was low and soft and sexy all at once.

"Tsarina, you look so lovely tonight you know I'm going to have trouble keeping my hands to myself" I reached out and laid my hands on her waist, pulling her gently towards me.

"I wouldn't have it any other way love" Nat smiled and leaned in, her hands resting on my shoulders, as we kissed. She tasted of strawberry lip gloss and mint toothpaste and smelt of gardenias and something uniquely her.

I don't know how long we stood there, just kissing, loving every second, before I started to slide my hands up her torso towards her breasts, at which point she stepped back, laughing and wagging her index finger at me mockingly.

"You, you're incorrigible"

"I prefer insatiable actually" We stood there for a second, smiling at each other, everything right in the world, before I glanced at the clock; it was getting late. "We'd better finish getting ready. You were calling a cab?"

"Ok, you lock up and I'll call them"

We bustled around the apartment finishing getting ready, I packed my clutch and we gave each other the once over, making sure everything looked great, but it took a lot of effort to stay focussed on going out, I'd much rather stay in with her and spend the night having a ball with her.

Eventually the cab arrived and we piled in, to the obvious approval of the driver.

"Ritz Carlton please"

"Certainly ladies, looks like you're going to have a wonderful night" Nat laughed.

"We certainly hope so"

I entwined my fingers with Nat's before bringing them up to my lips and kissing her hand, seeing her sit back and smile at me fondly. I heard the driver laugh and looked up at him, seeing him catch my eyes in the mirror.

"What?"

"I was going to say that you were looking to break guys hearts, dressed like that, but obviously you two lovely ladies don't need anyone else to have a great time tonight" He winked at us both, as Natalie laughed.

"Thanks, hopefully it'll be good fun"

We kept up a steady chatter with the driver on the trip; he was a Vietnam vet who'd been driving cabs for longer than we'd been alive. He'd seen it all and nothing fazed him. Talking to him, the trip passed all too quickly. When he heard I was a vet as well, he couldn't do enough for us, pulling up at the hotel he turned in his seat as we paid him.

"What time does your party finish tonight?" I shrugged, looking at Nat.

"Not sure, probably between 11 and 12, why?" He fished out a business card with his name, Matthew Gale, plus a cell number.

"It's going to be difficult to get a cab that late at night here, 'specially with everyone leaving at the same time. You ladies call me and I'll come and get you, no matter where I am, I'll come"

I was touched, as was Natalie, who looked up at him.

"You don't have to do that Matthew, you could be anywhere, it's not worth it to drag you all the way in here, especially that late"

"It don't bother me none, I'd rather come and get you than have you standing out here all hours and besides, you're nice people and Ana here's a vet, so it's the least I can do" With a shared look we gave in and thanked him profusely, promising to call him when we finished.

The porter held the cab door for us, smiling as we exited, we obviously met his approval and that of the doorman, who held the door open for us with a smile and nod. Moving in to the foyer we stood for a moment, as the flow of people swept around us.

People checking in or out, a tour group gathering, lots of people dressed well for a night on the town, a number of men in tuxedos who were probably police as well, they just carried themselves a certain way. We checked each other over to make sure we were still presentable, before walking over to a board with tonight's functions listed in gold lettering.

As we located the right room, we were interrupted by a deep voice from behind us.

"Ladies, hi" Turning, we saw a big black guy, very big actually, in a tailored suit with a reasonable amount of bling, rings, necklace, Rolex, no gold teeth thank god. "Hi, I'm Paul, I was wondering if you two lovely ladies would like to come to a party? My boss, D-Crypt, thought you might like to join us for dinner and an after party"

He nodded back towards a group of five guys about ten feet away, all dressed somewhat similar, gangster rap style, with a smaller guy, all covered in bling, standing in the middle. He smiled, revealing a face full of gold, and waved us over.

"C'mon ladies, you looking fine, come party wif us, we have a ball wif you"

I looked at Natalie as she raised an eyebrow at me, obviously amused. I smiled at Paul and spoke, loud enough to be heard by the rest.

"Please don't take this the wrong way Paul; no offence to you, but your boss should have the balls to ask us himself. Besides, we have a party to attend as well. There's going to be four other beautiful women at our table, if you want to come" I tapped the glass over the sign and his eyes flicked down to read LAPD Ball.

He looked up and I could see the narrowed eyes, he obviously thought we were having him on. We nodded.

"Yep, both of us and everyone else at our table, plus a few hundred others" He obviously had trouble reconciling the people in front of him with his preconceived notions of cops.

"You gotta be shittin me" I smiled sweetly and pulled my I.D. out of my clutch as did Nat.

"FBI"

"LAPD" He took a step back.

"Ah thanks, sorry to bother you, um, forget I asked ok" Paul stepped away and spoke rapidly to the rest, who looked at us and shook their heads, before moving towards the lifts. A white guy, tall, fit, conservatively dressed in slacks and a jacket stood near where they had been; he smiled gently, before nodding his respects to us; then trailed the group. Natalie's eyes followed them.

"Who was he?" I shrugged as I put my badge away.

"Who, D-Crypt? Probably some rapper dude we've never heard of"

"No, the white guy, he looked different" I looked up, noticing the way his eyes scanned the room.

"The CPP guy" I scanned the room; they usually worked in groups, seeing another man, similarly dressed, standing near the foyer entrance. I nodded at the man by the door. "Him too" Natalie casually turned to look his way.

"CPP?"

"Close Personal Protection, basically professional top end security. D-Crypt either has enemies or he's paranoid enough to want to pay for real protection, not that posse with him, these are pros. Probably ex-military by the look of them" Nat grimaced as she placed her I.D. away; then linked her arm with mine.

"Well, that was the first, but probably not the last tonight" She nodded to the elevators, now that D-Crypt and his friends were gone. "Shall we?" I smiled.

"Let's shall"

Exiting into the Ballroom, it was a sea of penguins, tuxedos and black ties, with a scattering of women in gowns. I spotted Pope standing at a large table near the stage and nodded in his direction. A string quartet played in the background, soothing and not loud enough to have to yell to talk over.

"His holiness awaits" Nat giggled at our little nickname for Pope, as we made our way towards his table. He obviously spotted us, as he smiled a little too happily, obviously taking us both in.

"Ms Dearing, Agent Romanov, welcome to the Ball"

"Chief Pope"

"Chief"

"I'm glad you could make it, can I say you both look wonderful" Natalie smiled politely.

"Thank you, a tux suits you Chief" He smiled, his eyes running over Natalie in a little too familiar manner. I sighed, show time. I smiled at him, as I laid my arm on Nat's.

"You have a good roll up here tonight Chief, is it normally as well attended?" He must have realised that he was being a little too obvious ogling Nat, as he smiled and turned to me, his eyes taking me in and judging by the half smile on his face, liking what he saw.

"About seven to eight hundred is pretty normal; money raised goes to the LAPD family benefit charity, so it's a good cause, as well as a chance to get together out of work" He looked around, his table was half full of senior officers and bureaucrats from various divisions, with name tags at each seat. I could see the Mayor's name on the one next to Pope's.

"Which table are you at; I didn't see your names on the seating plan?" Natalie smiled, linking her arm through mine, another not so subtle reminder to Pope that we were together.

"We're on Major Crimes' table, we've been working closely with them on a couple of cases, particularly the sniper case, so it made sense to sit with them" I nodded, smiling at Natalie.

"They were kind enough to take us in" Pope nodded, a little dubiously.

"I'm sure any of the divisions would have been happy to host you at their tables, in this case it's their loss and Major Crime's gain" He looked past me as someone came in. "Please excuse me, the Mayor's here" We both nodded and stepped back as Pope headed for the door. Natalie leaned my way and spoke quietly.

"Let's get out of here, I don't want to be here when the Mayor arrives, he has a rep to live down to" I nodded and we turned away from the table.

"Bad?" She smiled politely as we moved through the crowd, murmuring just loud enough to be heard over the background din.

"He has a wandering eye and wandering hands is what I've heard" I smiled at someone I vaguely recognised but couldn't place.

"Well, as I don't want to be arrested for assaulting a civic official, by all means let's get out of here"

Moving through the throngs we attracted the usual collection of admiring glances, nodding to familiar faces and stopping to exchange greetings with a number of senior officers who went out of their way to stop us and chat.

Pretty usual when Nat's out and about, but I was surprised that several people seemed more interested in me than her. Maybe they thought she was too far out of their league and were slumming it with me. I smiled at Captain Oats from Air Support, who was being a little too charming, before Nat came to my rescue, reminding us both that we had to find our table.

Shortly thereafter we spotted David Gabriel making his way through the crowd, so we followed him and ended up at Major Crimes' table. As the squad spotted us I noticed they stood just a little straighter, turning to greet us. The guys were all there, looking dapper in tuxedos, although they were all wearing electric blue bowties.

Greetings were exchanged, with numerous compliments coming our way.

"I thought it said black tie?" Andy grinned at me.

"We decided to stand out from the crowd" Natalie laughed.

"You do that anyway, even without the accessories" I nodded.

"You all look good, you scrub up well" Provenza laughed, making it very obvious he was checking us out, getting a good-natured swat from Nat.

"I could say the same of both of you, but that'd be a pretty obvious statement"

We chatted for another minute or so when I heard Andy whistle gently.

"Holy hell…" I looked up to see him staring past us. Looking over I saw Jane and Maura had arrived.

Maura was dressed in that stunning Ellie Saab dress, shimmering green and lovely, discreet skin visible through lace worked into the dress, highlighting her wonderful figure, with her jet opal inlay necklace and earrings and her hair pinned to one side and down her shoulder with an antique comb. The final touch was the metallic Jimmy Choo pumps and matching clutch. She looked a million dollars and I could see eyes following her as she walked.

The rest of the eyes were for Jane, who was frankly spectacular. The vivid red dress she wore was a classic single shoulder cut, but the gown's split highlighted her remarkable legs, perched atop a set of blood red stilettos. Her hair was piled high and held in place with a set of gold combs, matched by a gold chain with a solitaire diamond pendant around her neck, diamond studs plus a gold bracelet on one arm and a gold watch on the other. I was trying to remember what the look reminded me of when it hit me; it had a very Grecian look, especially with the hair pinned up.

As they arrived, the team gave them a warm welcome. Mind you Sanchez had to wind Jane up.

"First time I've seen a Major Crimes detective in an evening dress" Jane smiled at him, her arm around Maura's waist.

"Jealous Sanchez?" He smiled.

"Only of your date" Jane tightened her arm, making Maura look up happily at which Jane smiled back, before returning her gaze back to Sanchez.

"You should be" Sanchez ran his eyes obviously up and down Maura, before looking at Jane again and shaking his head slowly.

"Hell yeah" Maura was chatting to Buzz Watson and Michael Tao.

"Might I say you all look very dashing" Buzz coloured slightly as Michael leaned in slightly.

"The Chief asked us to make an effort" Maura smiled widely.

"She may have asked but we appreciate it" Jane looked around.

"Speaking of which, where is the Chief?" Andy shrugged as David spoke.

"I'm not sure, she usually gets here early" Seeing Natalie exchanging a joke with Provenza, I stepped into the other conversation.

"What does a girl have to do to get a drink around here?" Jane laughed.

"Exactly what I was wondering too?" Julio laughed.

"Get your own Rizzoli"

"Holy Crap!" I turned; it was Michael, staring past us towards the entrance. We turned to look, catching Brenda making her way through the crowd and towards us. David was equally impressed.

"Wow" Buzz nodded.

"Someone's dressed to impress" I exchanged a small smile with Nat, we knew why, looking up I caught a similar look passing between Maura and Jane.

Brenda was dressed in a cobalt blue sheath dress, so wonderfully form fitting it looked like she'd been sewn into it, with a small lace train behind her, the sheath was both shoulder-less and backless and highlighted her lovely shape. I watched as heads turned as she passed, admiring the gown's train, which was made of translucent blue lace from the knees down. Matched with a set of four inch heels in matching blue, she looked breathtaking.

We watched as Brenda approached, smiling and exchanging compliments with a number of people as she made her way over towards us. Her hair was pinned back away from her face in soft waves, with the rest tumbling gracefully down her back, held in place with silver combs. A fine silver necklace with several diamonds hanging from it adorned her neck, teamed with matching drop earrings and a silver clutch. As she arrived, she turned that radiant smile on us all.

"Sorry I was late everyone, I had to extract myself from Chief Pope, he wouldn't let me go" Provenza waggled an eyebrow at her.

"I couldn't possibly see what attracted his interest" There was an outbreak of smiles and chuckles as we stood around, the rest of the party forgotten for a moment as we enjoyed each other's company.

"I appreciate the ties everyone, very, very stylish" David smiled.

"Not to mention they match your outfit" Brenda smirked at him.

"Why indeed they do, I wonder how that happened" David looked down for a moment.

"We may have heard a whisper on the grapevine" Brenda just grinned at him, before looking around at her team, pausing to wink at Maura then Natalie.

"That's a particularly well informed grapevine. Thank you everyone, I appreciate it, you all look very, very handsome tonight" Provenza looked around.

"We seem to be attracting a lot of attention tonight" I noticed a lot of head craning and gawking from other tables, not hard to understand why though. I had my arm around the waist of one of the reasons and she had hers around mine. Brenda looked around and took us all in.

"So gentlemen, have you been looking after our guests?" Jane smiled.

"Well no one's offered us a drink yet" Sanchez rolled his eyes before speaking.

"That's for guests, we don't have any guests here" Andy smiled.

"Yeah, everyone here's part of the team" I noticed Maura's smile grow noticeably wider at that. We laughed for a moment as I looked around; we were a tight circle of happy people, focussed inwards on each other, momentarily forgetting the rest of the room.

They were right; we were all part of the team.

Just then David snagged a passing waiter and started distributing Champaign flutes all round, with a second waiter required to equip all of us. I noticed Brenda grabbed two, something not unnoticed by Andy, who raised an eyebrow at her.

"You planning on being a two fisted drinker tonight Chief?" She looked down at the glasses for a moment before looking up and smiling.

"I'm holding it for our final member of the team" Buzz looked around.

"Where is Commander Raydor? Not like her to be late" Provenza couldn't let that pass.

"Maybe her broom couldn't start" At the frown from Brenda he looked confused. "What I do?" Brenda just shook her head and smiled at him. I could see she was very fond of them all.

Andy held up his glass.

"A toast" I could see Brenda looking around, but she didn't see Sharon. I sighed. Sanchez smiled.

"To a better year to come?" Provenza grinned.

"We're in Major Crimes, like that's going to happen" Tao grinned as well.

"We could always go with the Royal Navy one" Maura frowned.

"I hardly see how toasting a bloody war and a swift promotion is appropriate Lieutenant" Michael was unfazed.

"I was thinking about the other one I heard about. To wives and girlfriends, may they never meet" There was general sniggering at that one, until a welcome, clear voice rang through the group.

"I think that given half of us are female, I think that one might be considered just a little bit sexist, don't you Lieutenant Tao?" We all turned to see Sharon standing there, looking at us. Most of us had smiles at her appearance, but sneaking a look at Brenda, her smile would have lit the room up.

Sharon was standing there, in a rich chocolate strapless, backless ball gown. I recognised it as a Versace piece, satin and lovely, gathered at the left hip and split from there down, revealing a daring length of leg, ending in a leopard print set of ridiculously high heels and a ruffled train. She'd teamed it with a set of rich gold accessories, a torc necklace, earrings, a bracelet and a clutch in the same print style as her shoes. Her hair was gently styled, with a wave running through it and deep reddish highlights hinting at her Irish heritage.

She looked like some exotic chocolate temptation, rich and decadent and oh so tempting.

David and Julio stepped back slightly, expanding our circle to include Sharon, who stepped in with a smile for us all and eyes strictly for Brenda. Brenda smiled happily and handed her second glass to Sharon.

"Well ladies and gentlemen Now that we're all here and the team's complete, to what shall we toast" We paused for a moment before Sharon lifted her glass.

"To friendship and new beginnings"

I smiled. That felt so right, so many of us had started something new here in LA recently. I saw Jane and Maura nod at each other, as Natalie pulled me in closer to her. The electricity between Brenda and Sharon was almost palpable if you knew what to look for. I caught Jane's eye and we exchanged smiles at what was happening.

Brenda smiled and nodded, her eyes never leaving Sharon.

"I couldn't think of anything better or more appropriate"

As one we raised our glasses.

"To friendship and new beginnings"


	68. Chapter 68

**The LAPD Ball Part 2**

Jane's viewpoint

"To friendship and new beginnings"

Sipping my champaign, I looked over the rim at Maura and saw the twinkling of her eyes; it was obvious she was intent on having a great time. I certainly hadn't missed her smile when Flynn had said everyone was part of the team.

Just seeing Maura having a good time made me happy, happy enough to overlook the uncomfortable shoes, the dress, the makeup and the rest, just to make her smile. '_God Rizzoli, Ana's right, you are so whipped_.

To distract myself from that thought I looked around the group, an even dozen of us.

Flynn and Provenza were sharing a joke, Buzz smiling at Maura and complimenting her dress, Natalie and Ana smiling at everyone, standing there, arms around each other's waists. Gabriel and Brenda chatting, although Brenda's eyes were flicking back to Sharon where she was laughing at a comment Sanchez had made.

Tao leaned in to me.

"I don't think I've ever seen the Commander so relaxed and happy, I wonder what's going on" I wasn't going to out them before they'd even begun so I played dumb and smiled.

"I don't know, but I'm not complaining, it's a night for having a good time" He nodded and saluted me with his glass.

"It is that, cheers Jane" I smiled and we tapped glasses. I felt Maura's hand on my arm and turned to smile at her.

"Hey babe?"

"Jane, I was mentioning the video wall we had back at Boston Homicide to James here…' She nodded to Buzz; only Maura would call him James. "…and I thought you could do a better job explaining it as you're more familiar with it"

I laughed, that wall was Frost's pride and joy.

I started to explain the way it was set up and how we used it, how useful it was, to Buzz's obvious interest. Before I knew it Tao was also listening in. Talking to them it was obvious that they could see lots of uses for it so I found myself promising to put them in contact with Frost back in Boston.

That led into a discussion about what we missed since we relocated, a subject I was happy to drag Maura back into, I hated her not being a part of the conversation. Besides, watching her smiling and happy was all the reward I needed. I felt a gentle tap on the shoulder and turned to face Ana, standing there with a glass in her hand.

"See Jane, I promised I wouldn't leave you in the lurch" She smiled and indicated the dress she was wearing. I laughed, remembering our conversation a couple of weeks back in their kitchen.

"Well, so far half of what you've foretold has come true; we'll have to see about the other half" Ana just smiled and leaned in.

"No worries there Jane, you look great" I shrugged.

"You can thank Maura for that; she has all the taste when it comes to clothes"

"Well the red works really well, so I'll have to compliment her on her taste, in clothes if not in girlfriends" I laughed.

"I'm not the one who's been abandoned by their partner already" I nodded to where Natalie was laughing at one of Provenza's stories. Ana's eyes followed mine and she smiled.

"Nice try Jane" She leaned in, her voice dropping. "I'd heard that Maura and Nat had a hand in Brenda's outfit, they do nice work, damn nice work" I looked over at Brenda, admiring her, she looked, what was that word Nat and Ana liked using? Oh yeah, delicious.

She looked good enough to eat, and I could imagine that Sharon was thinking exactly that.

"I think we can safely say that if Brenda hadn't caught Sharon's eye before, she sure as hell would have now" Ana nodded.

"They both look great, they'll look even better together" I nodded and smiled, before leaning back and resuming my normal tone, in case anyone was wondering what we were talking about.

"Natalie has good taste too, well at least in clothes. You look really good Ana, white suits you" She blushed slightly.

"And red suits you" I was about to say something when Natalie stepped up, favouring us with a cheeky smile.

"I hate to interrupt this mutual admiration society, but we're supposed to be taking our seats for dinner soon and I would like to remind you both to behave yourselves tonight" I smiled; my voice as innocent as I could make it.

"Who us?" She wasn't having a bar of it.

"Yes you, both of you. Maura and I won't be sitting next to you to keep you in line, so behave" Ana immediately looked unhappy, something I felt as well.

"You won't?"

"No, unfortunately not, the seating plan sees us spread round the table, so behave yourselves or Maura and I will be forced to take stern measures tonight" I grinned, I love a challenge.

"What sort of stern measures?" Nat's eyes flashed to Maura and back again.

"Both our places have couches, you might want to consider that they're a lot less comfortable than our beds" Ana chuckled.

"To be a valid threat, It has to be believable Blondie" I grinned even wider.

"Yeah, you mean to tell me that you can look at Ana here, looking like that, then kick her out onto the couch tonight" Ana wasn't having a bar of it either.

"Nat, there is no way, having wrapped Jane up looking like that, Maura is going to deny herself the pleasure of unwrapping her too" I winked at Ana.

"Damn straight, besides, given how good they both look tonight, I'm looking forward to unwrapping Maura about as much as you are Nat here" I saw a faint red tinge start to bloom on Natalie's cheeks. Ana saw it too. It was fun teasing Nat for a change, normally it was the other way round.

"Jane's right Nat, it's a cliché, but while that dress looks lovely on you, it's going to look so much better on the floor of our bedroom" Maura's voice, warm with humour broke in.

"We've barely arrived and here you are already skipping to the after party Anastasia? Really?" I smiled at her as I slid an arm around her waist.

"Nat was telling us to behave during dinner or we're likely to be banished to the couch tonight" Ana smiled as she pulled Nat close.

"And I was telling Nat that a threat has to be believable to work and that one wasn't" Maura nodded once, before looking at Nat.

"I'm afraid they're right Natalie, I don't think the stick will work tonight. We need liberal use of the carrot, especially when they look this good. In fact Anastasia, you look good tonight, very, very good." Maura ran her eyes very slowly, very obviously up and down Ana, bringing a slight blush to her victim's cheeks.

I turned to look at her, eyebrow lifting at the very blatant flirting. Natalie narrowed her eyes for a moment.

"Good point Maura" She looked across at me and smiled a very slow, wicked smile as she ran her eyes over me slowly. "Jane darling, you look utterly, totally delicious in red. I'm looking forward to dancing with you tonight. I'll even let you lead, so I can snuggle up nice and close during the slow dances" I licked my suddenly dry lips as Natalie leaned in

"I'll try and keep my hands to myself but it'll be very hard, with you dressed like that, so don't be too upset with me if I can't"

She smiled, obviously aware of the impact her words were having as I felt myself reacting. I turned to look at Maura, wondering what she was thinking, but I didn't have to wait long. Maura was smiling at an obviously stunned Ana, her voice that soft, sexy purr I love, as she leaned forward a little.

"I'm also looking forward to the dancing Anastasia, or should that be Tsarina. Can I call you Tsarina? Natalie tells me that you have some wonderful moves on the dance floor, I can't wait to get some close-up hands-on experience" Ana swallowed as she blushed, not helped by Maura's next words.

"Like Natalie, I'll try and keep my hands to myself, but not too hard"

Maura and Natalie exchanged smiles and looked back at us.

"Of course, all of these good things are dependent on how well you both behave yourselves; after all, I believe the men from Major Crimes are also looking forward to dancing with us tonight" Natalie smiled.

"Yes, apparently David Gabriel does ballroom dancing and Andy Flynn's reportedly a very good dancer too, so we do have other options"

I looked up at Ana and we exchanged an '_oh shit_' look, before I turned to look down at Maura.

"Nothing to worry about with us" Ana was equally certain, looking at Nat.

"Nope, we're good" The girls exchanged warm, satisfied smiles, before Natalie disengaged herself from Ana with a smile and a quick kiss

"Excellent, now if you'll excuse us both, Maura and I need to compliment Sharon on that dress, she looks amazing" With that they broke away, Maura giving me a quick parting kiss on the cheek, leaving us standing there, looking after them wistfully. Finally I spoke softly, looking down into my glass.

"Holy…" Ana's voice was quiet.

"…shit" I nodded.

"Y'know, I always thought Nat was going to be a bad influence on Maura, now I'm certain of it. Maura would normally never flirt with someone else like that"

Ana glanced across at me for a moment, before looking over to where Maura, Nat, Brenda and Sharon were clustered, laughing at something, then she looked back at me, her face pensive.

"I was going to say the same thing but the other way round, it's like Maura brings out Nat's playful, teasing side" I considered that for a moment.

"It's like mixing nitro and glycerine, the result's pretty explosive" Ana smiled.

"Well, last weekend confirmed that" I looked down at the floor for a moment, remembering that particular experience.

"Um yeah, that was… something else" Ana cleared her throat, obviously remembering that night as well.

"That it was" We stood there for a moment, before Ana leaned in close. I could smell her perfume, it was spicy and tantalising. "Did Maura tell you about Sharon's comment about last weekend?" I frowned, Maura hadn't mentioned anything.

"No? What comment?" Ana looked around quickly before leaning in closer, her voice low.

"Nat said that Sharon hoped that she and Brenda' would be able to come to The Intersection with us one night soon, plus that she would be up for the same dare" My head swung around to look at Sharon and Brenda nearby, before swinging back to Ana.

"Oh god, they know about that?"

I felt a combination of shock, embarrassment and excitement run through me. I couldn't imagine how I'd feel about Cavanagh back in Boston knowing that much about my personal life, but here my boss obviously knew. Not only knew, but approved.

"Yep and they want to play too" I shook my head, looking over the two beautiful women standing there chatting to our lovers.

"Wow, really? I'd never have guessed" Ana smiled softly.

"Yeah, looks like, I underestimated them too" I frowned.

"I didn't think they'd got past the flirting stage" She shrugged, the smile growing wider.

"I don't think they have either, but damn, those two when they finally get going…" I laughed.

"Yeah, stand back and watch the fireworks"

"Fireworks?" I turned to see Gabriel looking at us with an interested look on his face. Ana stepped in before I could speak.

"Just talking about how I haven't seen a good fireworks display in ages. What's the best one in LA?" I smiled '_nice save there Ana_'. Gabriel smiled.

"Oh, that'd be the 4th of July fireworks, they're probably the biggest and best each year" I nodded.

"Great, I'd like to see those too" He nodded and leaned slightly in.

"You think you and Dr Isles would stay here in LA then?" I smiled.

"It's certainly something we'd consider; we're both enjoying it here" He nodded slowly.

"I can't speak for the whole squad, but I'd like you both to stay if possible" I smiled.

"That's nice of you to say so, I appreciate that" He looked awkward.

"Well, it's not really you so much, it's kinda more about Dr Isles" I folded my arms and looked at him. Suddenly realising what he'd said he tried to backtrack. "I mean, oh shit, that came out totally the wrong way, I didn't mean it like that" Sanchez had obviously heard Gabriel shove his foot in it and stepped up to us to hear him try and back out with his hide intact, a huge smile on his face. I just looked at Gabriel.

"This had better be good" I saw Ana trying to hide a dreadful smile at Gabriel's predicament as he stared into his drink.

"Well, the Doc, she does autopsies and I sit in on a number of them y'know, the Chief asks us all to do that" I nodded slowly and waited.

"Well not once, in the entire time she's been here, has the Doc handed me a body part to hold. Morales used to do that. **All The Freaking Time!** It gave me the creeps" Sanchez laughed.

"Yeah, he did that to a couple of victims, mostly the squeamish ones. Connolly in Robbery Homicide used to be his favourite target; he'd go green and run for the bathroom" I grinned, letting Gabriel know he was off the hook.

"My partner in Boston, Frost, he has a weak stomach. Great guy and a good detective, but he used to go green at the gills at the sight of a messy body. Maura ended up helping get him used to autopsies so he could face dead bodies, he's got a lot better lately. Mind you, the smell of a bad decomp never fails" Ana nodded.

"I used to have the same issues when I first started out; I got queasy at dead bodies. I'm better now" Sanchez looked interested.

"Oh?" She shrugged.

"A tour in Afghanistan and another in Iraq; after seeing your first few suicide and car bombings, you get used to it" Gabriel pointedly changed the subject.

"I don't know how we got onto this subject, but I don't think it's all that appropriate for tonight. This is supposed to be a good night" Ana smiled, conceding the point.

"I understand you do ballroom dancing David" He looked slightly embarrassed.

"Yeah, it sort of grew out of the church I go to, they arranged it for teenagers as a safe way to meet other kids and I liked it, so I kept it up" He smiled a little wistfully. "That's where I met my girlfriend Ann" Ana raised an eyebrow at Sanchez.

"What about you Julio?" He smiled.

"Dancing yes, ballroom no, it wasn't a big thing in the barrio. Where'd you learn?" She smiled.

"On army bases, my dad was in the army and used to attend formal dinners and functions in the Officers Mess. I went to a lot of them as a teenager as his escort and they included formal dancing" Her laugh was warm and happy. "I got to dance with a lot of dashing young army officers and cadets, unfortunately most of them were terrified to be dancing with the Colonel's daughter while he was watching, so they were on their best behaviour"

Gabriel and Sanchez smiled and both looked at me. I shrugged.

"I had an Italian mom; I was supposed to do ballet, which I absolutely hated, so she switched it to ballroom dancing, so I learned to dance. I stopped it when I could, but Maura likes to dance and was formally trained, so I started up again. It was either that or watch her out on the dance floor with guys trying to pick her up, so I started dancing again" Gabriel looked at me curiously.

"But the Doc will be dancing with us tonight; you're ok with that right" I smiled, a little nastily.

"Yep, because I'll be watching and everyone knows that I will personally kick your ass if anyone tries anything" Ana chimed in, smiling sweetly.

"The same goes for Natalie, but I know your intentions will be entirely honourable, mostly out of self-preservation"

They both smiled and nodded, the message obviously getting through.

I smiled at them as I realised I wasn't having any of the issues I thought I might tonight. I'd decided that I was going to be completely open with everyone tonight, that Maura and I were here as a couple and that we were more than happy that everyone knew it. So far everyone had accepted us here together which had made it easier.

As for being 'out and proud', I was already kinda out to the people we worked with and they hadn't given us any grief, I hoped the rest of the night went as well.

As for the proud part, well I couldn't have been any more proud of the fact that I was here with Maura, that we were here together and that I was her lover. I knew that half the men and more than a few of the women here tonight were jealous of the fact that I was here with her.

I'd seen the looks that Maura had been getting as we made our way through the room, men and women openly admiring her, for damned good reason. She was stunningly beautiful and I was proud to be the one person here she called hers.

I looked over to where she stood next to Natalie; each was beautiful, seeing the pair of them together was breathtaking. Blonde, beautiful, intelligent, charming, sexy, they drew the eye to them, they attracted desire and lust and awe, simply by their presence.

As I looked at them both standing there, I realised that I was simply blessed. One of the most beautiful women I'd ever met loved me and the other was our friend.

I glanced over to where Ana was charming Tao with a story from her Army days and smiled. We were both so damned lucky, sometimes I'd wake up in the middle of the night and just lie there, looking at Maura in the dim light and simply allow myself to understand this was real, that somehow, out of a completely fucked up life, I'd managed to find my way to love Maura Isles.

"It's not hard to work out what's on your mind Rizzoli" I started at the voice beside me, turning to look down at Provenza standing next to me.

"Oh, how so?"

"Well, in the time you've been in the squad, I've seen the whole range of emotions from you, pissed, happy, angry, laughing, confused and so on, but this has to be a first, I've never seen you do pensive before" I just looked at him with a raised eyebrow and tilted my head.

"Well, given you were standing there staring at the Chief, Natalie and the doc, I can guess it's neither Brenda or Natalie, so I'd hazard a guess and suggest you were looking at Maura and wondering how the hell you managed to get so lucky" I just stared at him for a moment then nodded slowly.

"Not bad, pretty much spot on" He smiled.

"Can't say I blame you, I've walked down the aisle a few times…" He pulled a face. "Too damn many actually and I can tell you when it's the right one" He shrugged. "Looking at you two, I'd say that's the right one"

"And exactly how many times you been married Provenza?" He smiled and nodded, conceding the point.

"Four times and before you say it, I loved each of them. The thing was I let the job get in the way of what I had" I noticed Maura looking our way one eyebrow raised. Provenza lifted his glass to her and saluted her with a smile, to which she smiled back happily. He leaned in to me.

"You've got a beautiful woman there Rizzoli, you got a lot to be happy about" I nodded slowly, my eyes on Maura where she was glancing over to us curiously as she chatted to Brenda.

"That I have, that I have" He stood a little straighter, obviously going to say his piece, before turning to face me directly, his face serious.

"When you do marry her Rizzoli, do what I didn't and remember what's really important. Jobs come and go, but you'll never find another like her"

He nodded to me and wandered off towards a waiter. I stood there, looking after him for a minute, watching as he chased the waiter down and grabbed a beer and a coke, before walking over to talk to Flynn and Sanchez, handing the coke to Flynn.

I stood there for a moment, thinking over his words. '_You'll never find another like her_'

For the moment standing there alone with my thoughts, I considered the truth in what he'd said. He was right, I'm just a cop; she's so far out of my league that the idea of the two of us together was so unlikely as to be a bad joke. Somehow we'd managed to survive everything that life had thrown at us, overcome every obstacle, to be together.

I don't know what I'd done to win the lottery of life, but somehow I had, I woke up next to the best thing to ever happen to me every day and thanked god for my blessings.

Thinking back to what Provenza had said, I considered his advice. I would have thought after four attempts, he would have soured on the whole marriage thing, but he'd said '_when_' not '_if_' I marry Maura. I'd considered it, plenty of times. I couldn't imagine anyone else I could be with, to be married to, to have kids with and grow old together with.

It was sappy but true. The thought of marrying Maura wasn't scary, it just felt right. I wanted to, but I didn't want to rush it, we'd only been together for less than a year, but I wanted to do the right thing and marry her, I just needed to give it time.

"A penny for them Jane" I started at the warm voice from beside me, turning to look at Sharon, who'd appeared by my side, a warm smile directed at me. She looked great. I smiled back at her.

"Hey Sharon, if you don't mind taking compliments from a fashion disaster, you look amazing" She laughed gently.

"Looking at you, the last thing anyone would think was that you were a fashion disaster. You look good Jane, very good" I could feel my cheeks warm, everyone was complimenting me tonight.

"That's Maura's work, she's the fashionista in our house, I just wear what she suggests"

"She has good material to work with Jane, when you're not trying to hide it under work suits and slacks you're a beautiful woman" I looked down into my now empty glass, feeling the embarrassment flood through me. Being me I looked for an out.

"Um, can I get you a refill?" Her laugh was easy.

"Jane, you have to learn to take a compliment in the spirit it's given. I meant it, you look good" Spotting a circling waiter she beckoned him over. We swapped our champaign flutes for a white wine and a beer as Sharon smiled at me.

"You were standing here alone, staring off into the distance, definitely not here, so I decided to come and see if you needed some company" I shrugged.

"Just thinking, nothing bad" She looked at me, tilting her head to look me at with one eye over the rim of her glasses.

"Should I leave you to your thoughts or do you mind some company?" I smiled.

"Happy to have the company, I was just admiring Brenda, Natalie and Maura over there" She chuckled.

"Ah well, that's completely understandable, they're definitely worth admiring. I love Maura's dress, she looks lovely" I nodded.

"They all are. I'm kind of used to seeing Maura looking great and Natalie's usually stunning, but the Chief was a real surprise, I mean she's normally attractive, but tonight she looks amazing"

"That she does. I'm enjoying just watching her" I turned to her.

"I do that too, I can look at Maura all night, enjoying her having a good time" I paused for a moment, before pressing on. "I understand that you and Brenda are planning on getting together when you're ready?" She looked at me for a second, glancing over to Brenda before looking back, her voice a little lower.

"We're giving it time; I don't want to rush her. It's all new to her" I shrugged.

"It was to me as well, but once I got over that, well I'd never want to go back to how I was"

"Well, I'm hoping that's how it turns out here too" I noticed Ana take her leave of Buzz and walk over towards us as I spoke.

"I'm sure it will Sharon, it's just a matter of time" Ana stepped up on the other side of Sharon and leaned in.

"I noticed you two admiring the three prettiest blondes in the room, so I just had to come and join you" Sharon just smiled and looked down at the floor for a moment, as I smiled at Ana, who smiled back before looking at Sharon.

"So Sharon, Do you dance?" Her head came up, surprised by the question as she looked around.

"Uh, yes, I do. I'm not fantastic or anything, but I can dance" Ana smiled happily.

"Oh excellent, then we just have to get you and Brenda dancing together tonight" Sharon head swung back to Ana, a shocked look on her face, before she forced herself to relax, as her voice dropped to an urgent whisper.

"We can't do that, not in front of everyone. Brenda's not ready for that, hell she may never be ready to come out like that" Ana exchanged a smile with me before looking back at Sharon.

"Relax Sharon; Maura and Natalie apparently have something planned for tonight" I could see Sharon biting her lower lip uncertainly, looking across at Brenda. On one hand I could see she didn't want to cause Brenda any trouble, on the other she wanted to do it, so badly.

I almost laughed, the feared head of FID, she looked… well the only word that came to mind was cute.

"Don't worry Sharon. I can attest that when Natalie and Maura put their heads together, nothing but good things come of it" Sharon recovered and looked back at me, then glanced at Ana.

"I don't want to do anything that will cause Brenda problems" I laughed.

"I'm sure given the chance, she'll jump at it" Sharon still looked dubious.

"Maybe, but we'll have to be careful, as I said, I don't want to cause her any problems, nor push her to do something she doesn't want to do"

Ana smiled as she noticed the waiters moving through, indicating we should take our seats for dinner.

"Trust us Sharon, none of us want to cause either of you trouble, we just want you both to have some fun" I nodded.

As for making her do something she doesn't want to, we're talking about the Chief here" Sharon nodded as we started to move to the table.

"We'll see whatever happens" I smiled.

"The night's still young, Sharon, give it time"


	69. Chapter 69

**The LAPD Ball Part 3**

Maura's viewpoint

Moving to the table in response to the waiter's request, I found my place between Lieutenant's Provenza and Tao, with Brenda beyond Provenza and Anastasia on the other side of Michael.

Jane was sitting almost opposite me, a situation I was not completely happy with as I prefer to sit next to her, but it meant that we were required to be social, not that I minded too much, especially as back in Boston there had been some quiet complaints that we were often too wrapped up in each other to the detriment of people around us at formal social functions.

However since we had arrived in LA everyone at the table had made us very welcome, even Jane's ongoing personal sense of competition with Detective Sanchez had settled into something more familiar than serious, so being social presented no insurmountable issues

Lieutenant Tao held my chair for me and moved it in as I sat, a gentlemanly gesture I appreciated, thanking him with a smile. I noticed Lieutenant Provenza was doing the same for Brenda, an action repeated around the table. It was an example of old fashioned manners that I found utterly charming, I had been to innumerable society functions where the manners on show were far less than those freely on offer here.

The dinner itself was pleasant and Detective's Tao and Provenza were particularly charming company seated to either side, however I did miss Jane's comforting presence beside me.

The LAPD Chaplain, Father Bernard Riley, led off the evening with a quiet but heartfelt non-denominational prayer for the officers of the LAPD.

"Friends, let us pray for our fallen" Heads bowed around the room.

"Almighty God, we ask you to continue to watch over the spirits of our fallen officers, keeping them in your love and care. We also ask that you extend your love to those friends and family of our fallen left behind, providing a measure of peace to those who must bear the burden of living with their loss"

"In particular we ask you to watch over the families of those officers who have paid the ultimate sacrifice, as you take them into your eternal care" The Chaplain's voice took on a slower, sadder tone as he read the names as their faces appeared on large screens mounted on each wall.

"Detective Manuel Cordoba"

"Lieutenant John Farley"

"Officer David Kelly"

"Officer Tony Liao"

"Sergeant Nathan Menser"

"Officer Cory Mullins"

"Officer Nikki Black"

Chaplain Riley paused for a moment to give us time to reflect, seven dead officers this year, four since we had arrived. It was moments like this that the reality of what Jane did, the risks she faced, truly hit home. Jane was careful, she was good at what she did, but as she reminded me in a conversation not so long ago, it was not the safest of careers.

I wished she was sitting next to me, I needed to be able to reach out to her, to reaffirm our bond, at moments like this I needed the comfort of her touch. Her head was bowed so I was not able to catch her eye; I needed to connect with her. I wondered if that made me needy.

"Friends, let us now pray for the living. Almighty God, we ask you to watch over and guide the officers of the Los Angeles Police Department as they continue to protect and serve the community, watch over the innocent, defend the weak and arrest the guilty. Provide our officers with the guidance and counsel they may seek, while extending your care and support to them as they go about their duties, so that they may continue to protect your children, Amen"

A murmured '_Amen_' filled the room in response and I saw several people at the table, Jane, Sharon, Julio and David, cross themselves. While not a religious person, I understand and sometimes envy the solace that it can bring to those who believe.

Jane looked up and saw me watching her, giving me her warm smile which I returned with love.

The meal itself was a surprise. I had been expecting the rather unpleasant standard of what Jane facetiously calls the 'rubber chicken circuit', bland food prepared poorly and served in a mediocre way to make eating something to be endured, not enjoyed.

Instead the food was a delight. A check of the order of proceedings on the table revealed entrée was a liquorice braised venison cheek, pork cromesquis, carrot, cumin puree and pickles, presented wonderfully and wonderfully delicious.

Unfortunately entrée was followed by a tedious and obviously rote speech from the Mayor, eminently bland and forgettable and which he had no doubt forgotten 30 seconds after delivering it.

The main more than made up for it however, roasted duck breast with honey glazed parsnips, rhubarb chutney, confit duck pastia and a pain d' pice sauce. When I commented on the quality of the food, I was informed that the fare served at the previous Ball had been rather dire and the committee responsible had been summarily replaced and a new committee of volunteers had taken over the running of the event.

Brenda happily noted that Lieutenant Provenza was one of the new people on the committee and his work was roundly praised by everyone at the table. He looked embarrassed and deflected our thanks, commenting that '_he had to eat it too so it had damn well better be good_'. I am sure he found our thanks gratifying, even if he went out of his way to not show it.

Chief Pope's speech was surprisingly inspiring. For all his political skills, Chief Pope had been a police officer once and his deep care and regard for his officers was obvious.

He spoke at length of the lives and careers of the seven officers who had died in the last year, as images of their careers flashed up on large screens on each wall.

I looked up to find Jane's eyes on me, aware of my need for her reassurance. We exchanged a long look, full of compassion and love, before we smiled gently at each other and looked around.

"How long exactly have you and Jane been together" It was Lieutenant Tao, leaning in towards me slightly.

"Almost a year, but we have been friends for another two years on top of that" He smiled.

"Just watching you two, it looks like it's been a lot longer" I smiled as warmth spread through me at his words.

"Thank you, I waited all my life for someone like Jane, it's as if we were meant for each other" He smiled and raised his glass in a silent toast to me.

The dessert was the equal of the rest of the meal, a vanilla crème brûlée with macadamia biscotti, neither too sweet nor too tart. I took the opportunity to lean in and quietly compliment Lieutenant Provenza once again on the quality of the fare, receiving a small smile in return.

Coffee and tea was served with dessert, bringing the formal part of the evening to a close, as the stage filled up with an enlarged band, signalling that the dancing would soon begin.

As the band warmed up, Brenda tapped the wine glass in front of her to attract everyone's attention and noted that we were sure to have plenty of opportunities to dance tonight, but that for the first dance at least, only Sharon and she were available. I smiled in appreciation of her tact, as Jane walked around to my seat and held it for me as I stood.

She took my hand in hers and leaned in close.

"Would you do me the honour of the first dance Doctor Isles?" I looked up into her face and saw the warmth and love in her eyes, settling me as nothing else could.

"Nothing would give me greater pleasure Detective Rizzoli" I smiled and the answering grin lit up the room.

I looked around to see Anastasia walk up to Natalie and offer her a hand to rise, bringing it to her lips as Natalie stood. Standing there with Jane's arm around my waist, I looked over at Brenda and Sharon. I wanted nothing more than to see them dance together and be happy, that wasn't possible right now, but Natalie and I had plans for later in the evening.

After a short discussion and a coin toss between Lieutenants Tao and Flynn, Andy stood and offered his arm to Brenda, while James, Lieutenant Provenza and Sergeant Gabriel resorted to rock, paper, scissors, with David making no attempt to hide his pleasure at being Sharon's first dance partner of the evening.

We made our way out to the floor as the opening strains of Bryan Adams 'Everything I do, I do it for you' started up. The female lead singer had a sultry, throaty voice, which I felt did the track real justice. We were joined on the dance floor by at least another dozen or more pairs as the music rose. I stepped up close to Jane, one hand in hers, the other round her neck as her hand held me close low on my back and we moved in synch to the rhythm.

Jane smiled down at me as we moved easily together.

"I like this track, very appropriate" I smiled back at her, before she pulled me in and held me close. I felt very much at home, my head on her shoulder as I looked past her to see other couples moving together. Only a few feet away I could see Natalie and Anastasia lost in each other's eyes as they moved in effortless synch together.

Beyond them I could see Sharon and David dancing a formal waltz to the music, both obviously enjoying themselves, while Brenda and Andy Flynn were dancing not too far away. I had been told that that Lieutenant Flynn was an accomplished dancer, but I was impressed, Brenda was equally accomplished, together they looked like they could dance professionally. Unfortunately for the poor lieutenant, Sharon had designs on a tango of a different kind with Brenda.

I smiled to myself at the dance-related joke, ever since I had met Jane, she had been striving to bring me out of my shell, to make me more confident around others socially and little by little she was succeeding. I owed her so much; the person I am today is due in no small measure thanks to her.

I was about to say something when I suddenly felt Jane's fingers ghosting across my back, drawing teasing, gentle circles lower and lower, despite the lace of the dress between us I could feel my skin tingle at her touch. I sighed gently and felt more than heard Janes gentle laugh, she knew exactly what she was doing to me.

Realising two could play at that game, I snuggled in a little closer, before turning my head to her neck and gently kissing the point where her neck met her shoulder, just above her clavicle, then dragged my tongue up her neck for an inch or so. I took delight in the gentle shiver that passed through her body as I snuggled even closer into her body.

"Ok, you win babe" Jane's voice was warm and full of humour. "I'll stop the teasing" I chuckled at her; little did she know I had little intention of stopping.

As we danced, I saw that we had attracted a significant amount of interest, with Natalie and Anastasia and ourselves the centre of attention, people seated all around the dance floor had turned to watch.

I smiled, it's not often you get see women of Natalie and Anastasia's beauty looking so lovely, dancing together. I knew we looked good together as well, so I'm sure there were many eyes watching us, contemplating us together.

Not that I minded, Jane had said that we would be completely open about our affection tonight, a surprise but one which I had been overwhelmingly and emphatically happy to agree with. Jane had been reticent about being openly affectionate and loving in front of her peers back in Boston, but she had become much more relaxed about our relationship in public since we had moved here.

I believed it was the chance for a new start, together with the close example of Natalie and Anastasia that had allowed her to become far more comfortable with embracing our relationship in public. Realising it was a big step, one I was so grateful for; I decided to tease her just a little more.

I let the hand on Jane's neck slide up a bit, my fingers teasing and circling amongst the soft short hairs at the base of her scalp, I could feel goose bumps rising under my fingertips and Jane hold herself just a little straighter as she realised I hadn't stopped the teasing. Her voice dripped into my ear as she held me close.

"Someone's feeling frisky tonight" I smiled and continued the teasing movements on her neck as I replied.

"I did tell you that I love seeing you dressed like that, I'm going to have to work hard to keep my hands where they should be, at least while we're out here on the dance floor" Her chuckle was soft and close.

"Mmm, you do like it when I get dressed up for nights like tonight" I smiled softly.

"I call it positive reinforcement darling. I make sure you know how much I appreciate you dressed like this, that way you'll do it more often" I felt her lips gently kiss my temple as we danced.

"But if I dressed like this every day, then it wouldn't be special. It'd become routine and then I wouldn't get to see how much you like me dressed like this" I leaned back a little and looked up into her eyes.

"You could dress like this every day and I'd show you and tell you how beautiful you are everyday" Jane just smiled down at me, a soft wondering smile before she pulled me in close, placed a gentle kiss on my forehead and held me tight as I felt very loved.

Finally the song came to an end and Jane escorted me back to the table, where we met up with Anastasia and Natalie. Natalie leaned in to us and spoke in a low, sexy voice, barely audible over the music and hum of conversation.

"My Jane, you do dance well. I'm looking forward to getting up close and personal on the dance floor with you tonight" Jane looked back at her and laughed.

"I'm sure the fact that we're out in public at a work function will slow even you down a little bit Nat" Natalie smiled and tipped her head.

"A little, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy it" I smiled at the teasing.

"Of course you can, I'm going to enjoy dancing with Anastasia the same way" Jane just smiled and shook her head gently while Natalie smirked.

"Just hand her back to me in the same condition you found her Maura and I'll do the same with Jane. Well, I promise I'll try anyway."

I laughed at the teasing tone. Natalie was notorious about flirting with her close friends, but I trusted her implicitly. She might tease and flirt, but she could no more disappoint Anastasia than I could Jane. Still, that didn't mean we couldn't have some harmless fun with our lovers.

As I smiled, we were approached by several of the Major Crimes team, who asked us to dance. Over the next hour I found myself dancing with each of the men, with the exception of Detective Sanchez, who apparently was not comfortable with formal dancing.

Each was charming, complete gentlemen and I felt very comfortable with all of them, the night was turning out splendidly. In between dances with them I danced with Jane repeatedly, she too was having a pleasant evening, as she explained.

"I kinda thought it'd be weird, dancing with guys I work with. That it'd be like dancing with Korsak and Frost, but it's been a good night, not weird at all" I smiled happily.

"I'm just pleased you're having a good time darling, you looked like you were out there" Jane chuckled.

"Yeah, I was. Gabriel and Flynn in particular are damn good dancers" I smiled.

"So are you" As was her wont Jane tried to deflect the attention.

"Nah, it's you, you make me look good out there" I just shook my head at her in playful exasperation.

"Jane Rizzoli, why won't you accept a compliment when it's given"

"Probably because she's afraid she might start believing them" I looked up at Anastasia's voice, to see Natalie and her standing there. "Nat here wants to get her dance with Jane, which mean's you're stuck with me I'm afraid" I smiled at her.

"Now who's turning down compliments Anastasia? I watched you out there, you dance very well" She smiled.

"I didn't have much choice, my dad insisted I learn and Blondie here likes to dance, so it's either step up or be a wallflower while everyone else asks her to dance" Jane nodded.

"I hear that, same for me" Natalie just laughed as she looped her arm through Jane's.

"Well I'm asking you, I have Maura's permission and I won't take no for an answer, so c'mon Rizzoli"

I smiled as Jane made a play of being led reluctantly to the floor. They really did look wonderful together, they were both tall and striking and for all Jane's feigned reluctance, they melded together easily as the opening strains of Van Morrison's classic song 'Moondance' started up. I grabbed Anastasia's hand and led her to the floor, laughing over my shoulder as she followed happily.

"I love this song, let's dance" Anastasia laughed and caught up before swinging me round and into her arms as we moved into the dance. She moved easily in the lead as we effortlessly swayed and spun together. Looking at me, she grinned as she leaned in and spoke softly into my ear.

"I hope you promise to be good tonight" I laughed happily, leaning back a little to look her in the eye before dropping my voice to a low purr that Jane tells me hits her in exactly the right spot.

"Oh Tsarina, I promise you, I'm very good" I watched her eyes widen slightly, before they narrowed. As Jane would say, '_game on_'. Her voice was teasing.

"I don't know Maura; I have higher standards than Jane, I'm not that easy to impress"

"Well then, you will just have to get my best efforts, won't you?"

I felt a naughty thrill as we flirted. It was all harmless but wonderful fun, especially as Jane and Natalie were only a few feet away, I was certain that Natalie was being her usual shameless self, something confirmed as I saw over Anastasia's shoulder to where Jane was blushing while Natalie sported a knowing smirk.

"I look forward to your best efforts then Maura" Hearing the implicit challenge, I leaned into Anastasia's wonderfully curved body; just enough so that I was moulding to her, thanks to our heels our similar height meant that our breasts were rubbing against each other teasingly.

I heard the slight hitch in Anastasia's breathing, followed by a smile.

"Not bad, not bad, but can you take it as well as receive?" Before I could formulate a reply Anastasia's hand slid gently down my back to come to rest just at the base of my spine where it teased in small circles, bringing a tingle to me. As we spun on the floor I heard a small laugh from Anastasia, before she leaned in to me and spoke in a sly tone.

"Looks like I wasn't the only one with the same idea" I looked up at her, then followed her gaze to settle our partners, Jane's hand was idly toying over the skin of Natalie's back, just at the point where her bottom swelled out. I could see Natalie standing noticeably straighter.

Realising how competitive Jane can be, I almost felt sorry for Natalie, before Anastasia's teasing hand reminded me that I was in my own game here.

I leaned in against her, resting my head on her shoulder, letting my teeth gently graze her shoulder, causing Anastasia to stiffen before she gave a low chuckle.

"Oh, nice one Maura, you're as bad as Nat" I lifted my head to look her in the eye.

"Why thank you, I try" My quip brought a snort from her.

"Very trying in fact"

As we smiled, she suddenly chuckled evilly, before moving me backwards until my back brushed against Natalie and Jane, giving Anastasia cover to slide her hand down over my bottom and giving it a quick squeeze, making me start and my breath catch, before quickly resuming its previous resting place, it was all done so quickly that I doubt anyone saw anything.

I gave her a mock glare as she smiled sweetly at me, before I broke into laughter. Deciding two could play at that game, I moved my hand so my fingertips were touching her neck and then slowly dragged the nails teasingly down her neck, causing a shiver to run through her.

Anastasia suddenly tossed her head, causing her lovely, thick black hair to cascade down her back and dislodging my fingers. Before I could take the teasing up again she leaned in close next to my ear, to anyone watching she was saying something, in actual fact she ran the tip of her tongue along the edge of my ear, causing a shudder to run through me. I heard a chuckle as she pulled her head away.

"Y'know Maura, if we keep going like this we're likely to get arrested for indecency" I pretended to consider her statement.

"That would be bad for our reputations; perhaps we should consider this a draw?" She nodded, smiling gently.

"That would probably be best for both our sakes. Besides, we may need to bail those two out if they get too carried away" I looked around, somewhat concerned, until I saw them dancing there, both laughing happily. Anastasia smiled at them. "They look like their having just a little too much of a good time" I raised an eyebrow.

"Is there such a thing?" We smiled at each other for a moment as she pretended to contemplate her answer.

"Probably not" With that Anastasia pulled me in close and we finished our dance, leaving me with a feeling not unlike that I get from Jane, where I was held and felt safe and warm.

As we danced together, I found myself looking over Anastasia's shoulder to see Jane with Natalie held close; over our respective dance partners shoulders we caught each other's eye and smiled, before Jane gave me a cheeky wink. I felt a huge grin break out over my face.

Tonight, all was right with the world.


	70. Chapter 70

**The LAPD Ball Part 4**

Natalie's viewpoint

The Ball was going wonderfully well, Ana and I were having a great time and it certainly appeared that Jane and Maura were as well.

The guys in Major Crimes had been incredibly welcoming, we'd all had plenty of opportunities to dance with each of them and they'd all been perfect gentlemen. Ana joked that they knew that their balls hung by a slender thread if Jane or her saw them doing anything wrong, but deep down I knew she was joking, they were gentlemen behaving like gentlemen.

Our table had attracted a lot of attention, with most of the LAPD's senior officers wandering by for a chat. Even Chief Pope has stopped by, although I could tell he was more interested in what both Brenda and Sharon were wearing than what Major Crimes were up to.

I couldn't blame him I suppose given how great they both looked, I knew the gossip about his prior relationship with Brenda and rumours of his apparent interest in Sharon, but he seemed to take their polite rebuffs to his tentative offers to dance with good grace.

Unfortunately the same couldn't be said for a number of others. I had turned down several offers of varying politeness and one man had been rather rude when Ana had informed him that she wasn't interested in dancing with him and that she was restricting her dances to friends. When he pointed out that he was a lot better dancer than a bunch of Major Crimes geriatrics I'd thought either Julio or David were going to sort him out then and there. Brenda however had caught both their eyes and shook her head, letting us deal with it.

Fortunately Ana had contented herself with pointing out that she danced with men, not boys and that she really didn't need to deal with his feelings of inadequacy. She'd then turned and pulled me into her side and introduced me as her girlfriend, a woman who was more of a man than he'd ever be. I'd just happily leaned in and given her a deep kiss, making it emphatically plain that he didn't stand a chance. At that point he got the serious hint and left.

Brenda had laughed at that point and pointed out to David and Julio that Ana and I had long practice at putting down unwelcome attention and this way the young officer had to front his fellow officers and explain why he had returned empty handed. Julio however was still feeling aggrieved.

"But Chief, you heard what he called us" Brenda nodded and smiled.

"But Julio, which would you rather be, a Major Crimes geriatric dancing and partying with beautiful women like Ana and Natalie here, or a humiliated young man who'll be nursing his rejection in front of his friends for the rest of the night?" Julio nodded slowly, before conceding the point as Ana and I smiled at them.

"So Chief, your suggesting I should take advantage of the opportunity rather than getting angry" Brenda's smile got even wider.

"Exactly Julio" He smiled at her before turning to us both.

"Ana, I haven't really done much formal dancing, but do you mind chancing me treading on your toes and risk a dance with me?" Ana looked at me and I smiled and disentangled my arm from around her waist, letting her know I was happy to let her go. Ana looked at him and tilted her head slightly as she asked the question.

"Certainly Julio, but why me, Nat's a better dancer than me and she'd do a better job of dancing with you, especially if you're a bit of a novice at it" He looked at me and smiled a little sheepishly.

"No offence Nat, but Ana's more my height, I'd feel kinda awkward dancing with you and I'd not be sure where to look" The sheepish look on his face made me burst out laughing.

"I completely understand Julio and thank you" I turned to Ana. "He's all yours Tsarina, but be gentle with him, it's his first time" Ana just grinned back at me before grabbing a blushing Julio's hand and leading him towards the dance floor.

By now the band had upped the tempo a bit and the dancing was a lot less formal, so I had no qualms that Julio would be fine and both of them would have fun.

I'd wandered off after a waiter for a glass of water and was on my way back to the table when I overheard Buzz and Michael chatting. I heard them mention Brenda and Sharon, causing my ears to perk up.

"Is it just me or do the Chief and the Commander seem different tonight?" Buzz leaned in and spoke quietly, causing me to have to strain to hear. Michael turned to answer him.

"What do you mean?"

"They seem kinda closer tonight, I thought it was just me, but the more I watch, the more it's there" Michael nodded.

"I've been picking up a different vibe between them over the last week of two, but it's way stronger tonight"

"I thought I was imagining all the eyesex, but now I don't think so" Michael spluttered into his drink.

"Eyesex?! What the hell?" Buzz smiled quietly.

"Yeah, when two people keep staring at each other and holding the contact for longer than they need to, it's called eyesex. Watch the two of them for a while and tell me I'm wrong"

I smiled to myself. From what I've seen Buzz may not say much, but he also doesn't miss much either, he also seems to spend a lot of time just people watching.

Michael thought about it for a while, then nodded into his drink.

"Yeah, maybe. They do seem kinda closer than they have been, not a bad thing really, The Chief was in a shitty place when Howard left. She's a lot better and the Commander had a lot to do with that. If the two of them are getting on better that's a good thing" I saw a smirk pass over Buzz's face.

"Getting on better? Hell, if they get on much better than tonight I think they'll be changing their Facebook status" Michael frowned.

"I didn't think either of them were on Facebook" Buzz just smiled and shook his head, whether it was at Michael completely missing the point or something else I couldn't tell, before he held up his empty glass.

"I need another drink"

I watched them for a wander off in search of a waiter, leaving me grinning at Buzz's comment when a female voice came from behind me.

"Would you dance with me, now you're free?" I turned to see a powerfully-built brunette standing there, looking at me with a frankly appraising look in her eyes. She was wearing a fairly plain black dress and near flats, almost as if she preferred to downplay her femininity. I knew the type, a bit butch, forced to dress in a more feminine manner than she'd normally like to meet tonight's dress code. I smiled politely.

"Well, I wouldn't call myself exactly free. We haven't met" I held out my hand. "Natalie Dearing" As we shook I could feel the hardness and strength in her hands, but she was being gentle, like she didn't want to break me.

"Angie Knott, you're the new media person, I've heard of you" She smiled but her eyes were roving a little too blatantly for my taste. I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt.

"Nothing bad I hope?" She dragged her eyes up and looked me in the eyes for the first time.

"No, you live up to the reports"

"Which part of the LAPD are you from Angie?"

"Oh, I'm at the academy, I teach there" I nodded.

"I haven't had a chance to visit the academy yet, what do you teach" She shrugged, as if it wasn't important; her eyes were wandering again.

"I'm a physical trainer, I get the recruits into shape and teach unarmed combat" I smiled, it figured, plus it explained the physique and the hands.

"Do you enjoy the challenge?" She shrugged in response.

"It's ok I suppose, it's a job. She frowned a little, realising I was distracting her. "So, you want to dance?" Her impatience was starting to show.

"Thank you, but tonight I'm restricting it to my partner, my friends and my work colleagues"

"Hey, I'm a work colleague, we both work for the LAPD" I sighed gently to myself, Ms Knott was either obtuse or deliberately ignoring what I was saying, probably the latter.

"True, but for tonight I'm restricting it to my colleagues in Major Crimes" Her smile slipped a bit, not happy that I was turning her down.

"Oh, you think you're too good to dance with me?" I shook my head.

"Not at all, but you obviously waited until my partner wasn't here before approaching me. If all you wanted was a dance, I might possibly have been interested, but if you don't have the good grace to ask me in front of her, rather than waiting until she was gone then the answer is no" She looked at me for a second, her smile long gone.

"Fine" With that she turned and walked a few steps away, before she spotted Jane standing at the table, sipping a beer between dances. Maura was out on the floor with Provenza, who was an unexpectedly good dancer. Maura was obviously enjoying it, laughing as Provenza twirled her around with one hand over her head.

I watched as Angie looked Jane up and down, obviously liking what she saw and moved towards her to talk. I thought she may well be biting off more than she knew, Jane didn't take a back step to anyone and if Angie let her eyes rove over Jane the way they had with me I couldn't see it ending well.

Indeed, I could see Jane's smile falter as Angie's eyes raked over Jane's body, her jaw tightening as her temper started to build. I decided that I should probably save Angie from a far less gentle let down than I had offered, as subtlety wasn't exactly Jane's strong suit.

Walking towards them, I saw Jane see me and a wide smile break out, which I happily returned.

"Hello Jane, you promised me the next dance" Jane happily leapt for the escape hatch.

"That's right I did, you'll have to excuse me Angie, I have a prior engagement" I noticed a fairly unhappy look cast my way before she nodded and stepped back.

"Maybe I could have the next dance then?" Jane smiled, a strictly professional smile, not her usual radiant one that could light up a room.

"Possibly, but I have commitments with several of the other guys in Major Crimes, plus my girlfriend will want a dance next" With that she nodded to Angie and walked to me. "Have a good night" I nodded to Angie as well, catching a very sullen look directed towards us both.

"I believe I promised to let you lead Jane" She just smiled at me, a real one this time.

"Thanks for the save" I laughed as we stepped out onto the floor.

"Jane, that's what friends are for"

We'd danced through two songs, Jane really is a good dancer, we'd spun and swayed together and it had been great fun, but I noticed that Maura had returned to the table and I wanted to make sure Jane was there to protect Maura from someone like Angie.

I needed to visit the bathroom anyway, so after we returned to our table I excused myself and made my way to the ladies. Smiling to myself I noticed there was a queue for the Gents, but not the Ladies. To be expected when men at the Ball exceeded women three to one, but something I appreciated none the less.

A few minutes later I emerged to find that the band had taken a break, leaving the room considerably quieter. As I walked back towards Major Crimes table I saw Andy Flynn and Commander Taylor standing together having what appeared to be a heated argument.

As I drew closer I could hear what they were saying, drawing me to a stop just out of their view while I shamelessly eavesdropped as Taylor mocked Andy, his voice loud and obnoxious.

"C'mon Andy, the only reason your table's attracting any attention is because it's full of dykes" Flynn's voice was flat, but I could tell he was starting to get angry.

"Oh and here I was thinking it was cause it's full of beautiful women" Taylor's voice was pure venom.

"So what, they're all rug munchers Andy, when did the LA in LAPD turn into Lesbians Anonymous? Those four lesbo sluts are putting on a floor show out there in front of everyone" Andy shrugged.

"They're not doing anything wrong out there, just having fun with their partners. Last time I checked being gay isn't a crime, not anymore"

"That doesn't make it right. Hell, Johnson's husband left her, probably cause he couldn't get her to put out and now she's best friends with FIDs bitch queen and everyone knows the rumours about her"

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about, as far as I know they've both been completely professional, which is a hell of a lot more than some people I could name" Taylor's voice had started to rise.

"What are you insinuating Flynn?" Andy's voice if anything became even flatter and colder.

"I'm not the one smearing other officers with no proof. Besides even if it was true, so what, they've both behaved a lot more professionally than some I could think of. If I wanted to follow your lead and smear someone, let's start with you" Taylor interrupted him, putting his hand on Andy's chest.

"Think carefully Flynn, be very careful what you say" Flynn angrily batted away Taylors hand and shook his head, I could see he was one of those people who became colder the angrier he got and he was pretty cold right now.

"Oh really? Tell me, did Goldman pay you off or did you rat us out for free to get the Chief fired?" Taylor just barked a harsh laugh.

"Honestly Flynn, I don't know what the hell you're talking about" Andy folded his arms and stared at Taylor with what looked like contempt on his face.

"Whatever, it failed, Goldman's dead, you're out of Major Crimes and the Chief's still here" Taylor's reply was laden with satisfaction.

"For now, but sooner or later Miss Atlanta'll be gone, her dyke girlfriend in FID with her, I'll still be here and I'll remember this little conversation. There'll be a reckoning Flynn, sooner than you think" Andy wasn't backing down.

"Rather than making threats and spreading gossip, maybe you should spend a little time cleaning up your own mess"

"What the fuck are you talking about Flynn" Taylor was leaning a long way into Andy's personal space, and I could see this was going to end badly for him, so I stepped forward and forced myself into the conversation.

"Commander Taylor, what a surprise" He started at my voice, turning to take me in where I stood there, my hands on my hips. "I didn't realise your all too well-known issues with women were clouding your judgement, but I will point out that Major Crimes has a significantly higher success rate in both closures and convictions than Robbery Homicide

Taylor went to speak when I quickly cut him off.

"Now we both know that's due to the quality of the team that makes up Major Crimes…" I smiled and nodded at Andy. "However if you want to personalise that, if it's down to who leads that team perhaps you should get your own house in order" Taylor's face had settled into an ugly leer.

"And what exactly are you trying to say Dearing? What the fuck would a useless bitch like you know about policing" I smiled, knowing that would piss him off even more.

"I know that Robbery Homicide has a higher percentage of open and unsolved cases than Major Crimes, even though Major Crime's tasked with the more difficult and complex cases, suggesting that though your cases are easier, you're still failing to close them. You've a larger team than Major Crimes but they're less capable of closing cases. That sounds like a failure of leadership to me" Taylor's face was ugly.

"You stupid bitch, you haven't any idea about real policing, I was a cop when you were still sucking on your mommy's titties" He sneered at me. "Looks like nothing's changed, your still sucking on titties"

"Honestly Commander, is attacking my sexuality the best you can do? You'd better come up with a better defence than that when Professional Standards comes calling" Taylor took a step towards me and I saw Flynn take a half step to block him.

"What the hell do you mean by that?" I shrugged.

"Given Robbery Homicide's closure rate seems to have gone up in the past year but your conviction rates dropped badly since you took over, it suggests your division isn't doing what it's supposed to, get convictions. Something that Professional Standards will probably take an interest in"

"They won't find a thing, my team's clean and you're bluffing" I shrugged again.

"Am I, maybe? But when you also look at the rate of Officer Involved Shootings that Robbery Homicide has had in recent years, particularly since you took over, they might decide that there's something wrong with the culture in your division. It looks like a division that closes cases but can't get convictions and which is happy to shoot first and ask questions later"

"You're stepping into how real police do their job, that's dangerous ground for an ignorant civilian like you. No one would believe anything you have to say anyway" I nodded slowly, seemingly conceding the point.

"You may be right; after all I'm not a cop with all your years of experience, I'm simply the one who has to explain to the media why your division is getting its cases thrown out of court for lack of evidence" He smirked at me, a very ugly look on him.

"We'll that's your job Miss Dearing, I suggest you do it and leave the police work to me" I smiled at him, which got a curious look from Andy.

"Yes it is my job and it's funny, doing that I get to talk to the media a lot and it's amazing the stories I hear from them. You certainly had an interesting manner when it came to female journalists" Taylor was suddenly silent.

"It was fascinating really, when I took over many of this city's top female journalists told me how relieved they were that they didn't have to deal with you anymore. Now I'd assumed that was because you were a police officer and I was a media professional, but no. They were so pleased because they didn't have to put up with your latent chauvinism and blatant sexual harassment" Taylor's voice rose as he rushed to defend himself.

"You have no proof of that; there's been not a single complaint about my work. It's your word against mine and no one will believe a self-serving dyke like you" I laughed.

"Again with the attacks on my sexuality? I'd almost think you have issues with lesbians, but I know that it's really that you can't stand attractive women in positions of authority, not that you're not a nasty, bitter homophobe though" I shrugged. "As for my word against yours, it's funny, most of them thought it was just an individual problem you had with them, but I heard the same thing from one reporter after another, it seems you managed to piss off almost every female journalist covering crimes in this city"

"So fucking what, there wasn't a single complaint from any of them" I laughed at his indignant reply, sticking the knife in.

"Of course there wasn't, because you told them that if they caused trouble you'd cut them off from LAPD media conferences, interviews and other access. But you're gone now and they have someone else to deal with. An ignorant civilian as you put it, someone who now provides them with a professional media relationship with the LAPD. Not only that, but I get to put them in contact with each other so they can talk over their issues, specifically their issues with you"

Taylor was very, very silent. I smiled sweetly at him, as I thrust the knife a bit deeper

"Perhaps you're right, no one will listen to 'lesbo slut' like me, on the other hand when eight or ten of this city's top female journalists file a formal complaint about your behaviour, I doubt that will be so easily overlooked. Especially if they don't get satisfaction I have no doubt that they would be more than happy to go public. I can imagine that Chief Pope really doesn't need a coordinated cross-media story about sexual harassment and discrimination in the LAPD" Andy was openly grinning at Taylor's predicament, while Taylor's complexion was getting redder and redder. I decided to give the knife a final vicious twist.

"But what would I know; I'm just the media manager, the one who'll have to defend you to the media. I'd try of course, but I'd probably advise Chief Pope that if push came to shove, getting rid of you to make the whole issue go away wasn't such a bad thing. Especially if those same journalists filed a civil claim against you for sexual harassment and discrimination. In that case I'd suggest that the LAPD settle; you retire early and the law suit goes away, after an appropriately grovelling public apology"

Taylor stood there, obviously aware that his career was at risk. I looked at him, realising he was a bully at heart, threatening and powerful to those he could dominate, busy undermining those he couldn't, but too weak to stand up against a real threat.

I suddenly felt nothing but scorn, tired of having to deal with him, I turned to Andy Flynn.

"As you can see Andy, Commander Taylor has bigger things to worry about than settling scores in the distant future" I offered him my arm. "I believe I still owe you a dance"

Threading his arm through mine, he smiled at me.

"That you do"

With that we walked away from Taylor and headed back to Major Crimes table. Part way there I pulled him to a stop and leaned in to kiss him on the cheek.

"That was for defending us back there Andy, I appreciate it, we all do. It was very brave of you to go up against a senior officer like that" He smiled at me for a moment.

"Hey, it was my pleasure and I'd do it all over again, even if you didn't have that pretty impressive ace up your sleeve. Besides, Taylor and I have had some bad blood going back to when the Chief first arrived. He set me up to fall, just so he could hurt the Chief. He didn't care that I'd lose my job; I was collateral damage to him, so long as he could get at Brenda" I nodded as we started walking back to our table.

"Well, Taylor now has much more important things to worry about than going after you, but I still appreciate you defending all of us. Thank you"

"Natalie, that dance you promised is all the thanks I need" I laughed.

"Andy, under that hard exterior you're a real softie" He leaned in and smiled.

"Hey, keep that to yourself, can't have that getting out or my rep's busted"

"Andy, your secret is safe with me"


	71. Chapter 71

**The LAPD Ball Part 5**

Brenda's viewpoint

I was having a fantastic time, everyone had been wonderful, the night had well and truly exceeded my expectations, plus I had Sharon right here close at hand.

I'd found myself exchanging glances with her throughout the night, she was beautiful, the colours suited her and she had taken my breath away when I first saw her.

Sharon looked stunning, glamorous and very, very sexy, we exchanged glances as she had joined us and the look in her eyes had set my spirit soaring. She was there for the Ball, but she was here, looking like that for me. On one hand having her here was wonderful, on the other; it was going to be a trial to have her so close but not touch.

One concern melted away though once she joined our group, the look of appreciation in her eyes as she ran her eyes up and down my outfit meant everything to me. She hadn't said anything but I knew she approved, which was the whole idea.

I wanted her to like it;

I wanted her to like how I looked.

I wanted her to like me, to want me.

I wanted…her.

That was a huge change right there, but one I was coming to terms with.

Over the past few weeks we'd gone from a warm friendship to something closer. We weren't a couple, not yet, not really, but we had a connection, we were more than friends, less than lovers, at least we weren't there yet.

The way I saw her had changed, as we'd spent more time together lately, the level of comfort we'd had with each other had deepened. I'd become even more relaxed around Sharon, all the time we'd spent talking and chatting and working together was making me more and more at ease about where we were heading.

While the idea that we were going to end up together, in bed, was still a bit daunting, I could see that happening and I was moving from apprehension to something more like anticipation. The more I saw of the happiness that Jane and Ana and Maura and Nat had the more I wanted the same thing.

I watched them dance together out on the floor, they were glamorous and beautiful and the centre of everyone's attention. I couldn't drag my eyes off them when they swapped partners, Natalie and Jane looked amazing together while Ana and Maura were equally as stunning.

They looked great, beautiful and stylish, laughing and smiling, so obviously happy and comfortable with their partners and their friends and I sighed gently. I wanted to be like them, out there on the floor with Sharon, open and honest in front of everyone, having everyone see how happy I was and who was making me happy.

I'd danced with most of the squad, they were all lovely, obviously on their best behaviour and nothing less than the gentlemen I knew them to be. They may fool around when it was just us working together, but in front of the rest of the LAPD their behaviour was exemplary.

I'd noticed as well that for all they tease Sharon behind her back, occasionally calling her the 'wicked witch', as part of our team they'd made sure that she was never short of dance partners. I hadn't missed the laughter and smiles either, Sharon was having a good time and the guys were having a good time with her, which made me smile even more.

To be honest, I was just happy that everyone else was happy and knowing that they were happy for me. I'd had lots of good times with the boys, but tonight was one of the most enjoyable I'd ever had since I moved out to LA, all those years ago.

I'd politely turned down a few invitations to dance from senior officers, sticking with my friends, besides, I knew most of the men asking me were single and they were aware I was as well, so they most likely had ulterior motives. Besides, none of them held a candle to Sharon, least as far as I was concerned.

Hell, when Will Pope turned up and couldn't keep his eyes to himself, eyeing off Sharon, it'd taken all my patience not to snarl at him, I felt my temper rising as he leaned over her way, probably trying to get a look down her décolletage. Fortunately he'd taken our hints and backed off; a good thing as slapping his face would probably be a bad career move, especially in public.

Sharon and I had chatted a few times through the evening, just enjoying each other's company, our conversations were light but I found myself exchanging a lot of meaningful glances, just enjoying being with her, even when we weren't saying anything. I found myself appreciating her dress, she looked lovely and I admired her, enjoyed the chance to just look at her in a way I hadn't wanted to before our relationship had changed.

"Are you quite finished eyeing me off honey, or would you like me to give you a bit of a show?" I looked up guiltily at Sharon's words. I felt acutely embarrassed at what I must have been doing. I hate it when guys stare, I'd been pissed at Pope doing it and now here I was being just as bad.

"Oh god Sharon, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry" Her laugh was warm and I felt relief as she leaned in towards me, her hand on my arm.

"Hey, I dressed this way to get your attention and I'm guessing that you dressed like that for the same reason" I nodded, feeling my cheeks warm. Here I was a grown woman and a few gentle words from Sharon could have me blushing.

"Do you like it?" She turned this way and that, letting me look at her. To be honest, while I was interested in the dress, I was more interested in looking at her bare shoulders and the daringly high split that left her leg bare almost to the hip. Without realising it, I was moistening my now dry lips.

"It's beautiful, you look…beautiful" And she did, simply beautiful. Sharon just smiled a warm; '_cat who's got the cream_' smile.

"Then its mission accomplished, I wanted you to like it" Oh I did, I did, I liked her in it and I'd like her out of it too I was sure. I hurried to cover what I was thinking.

"It looks familiar but I don't know where from" She smirked at me; I swear that woman can read my mind at times.

"It's a Versace Atelier dress; apparently Angelina Jolie wore something almost identical in Cannes and the store had one in my size" My mind suddenly clicked into place, realising what she was saying. Versace Atelier, Angelina? Oh my god.

"Sharon, how much did that dress cost?" She just pulled a funny face and shrugged before smiling at me.

"Enough, but it was worth it to see your expression" I was shocked.

"Sharon, you didn't have to do that, just having you here tonight was everything I could have asked for" Sharon just dropped her head to peer at me over her glasses.

"I could ask the same question about you Brenda. That dress and those heels must have cost you a small fortune, did you buy them for the Ball or did you buy them for me?" I looked down for a moment, biting my lip, before nodding, speaking softly.

"You" When she said nothing I looked up, to see her smiling happily.

"Then we're even. We did this for each other and I'm glad we did. You look stunning" I blushed again, oh that woman; she seemed to be able to have me blushing on cue. Finally I spoke again.

"Sweetie, you'd look fantastic in old jeans and a ratty sweater, you didn't have to spend all that money on a dress to impress me" Sharon just turned a soft sweet smile on me.

"You didn't have to either Brenda, but you did, we both look good and we got the responses we wanted, so let's chalk this up as a successful night for both of us" With that she held up her glass and we tapped our glasses together as we smiled and shared a long, comfortable look, before we were happily dragged back onto the dance floor by Michael and David.

Finally I had to take a break to give my feet a chance to recover, these heels were lovely and I now knew Sharon loved seeing me in high heels, but dancing in four inch stilettoes was a bit more than I was used to,

I was sitting there, chatting to Buzz about what he was going to do with some holiday's he had coming when I noticed Sharon leaning back slightly from a woman who was being a trifle too friendly. She was leaning in and had her hand on Sharon's arm, an eager, somewhat predatory smile directed towards her.

I didn't know why it was bothering me, but I didn't like it and I didn't like the woman. I could see Sharon's happy smile had faded and been replaced by her cool, professional smile, the one she had when we'd first met, when she was unhappy but not going to show it.

That did it, someone was ruining Sharon's night and I wasn't having a bar of it. Before I knew it, I'd made my apologies to Buzz and walked quickly over to where Sharon was standing. I saw the other woman see me approach from behind Sharon, but ignore me, keeping her attention on Sharon. She was speaking as I stepped up.

"…that colour's just right for you Sharon; you look so good in it. Anyway I was wondering if I could ask you for a dance if you're up for it"

I stepped up beside Sharon, placing my hand on the small of her back, causing Sharon to turn quickly. I could feel her relax under my hand and she flashed me a lovely smile.

"Ah Brenda, there you are. This is Lieutenant Suzy Miller, from Vice" I smiled, giving my 'formal' smile a workout.

"Hi, I'm Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson" Suzy just stood there, looking between us, before finally speaking.

"I was just complimenting Sharon on her dress, she looks lovely" I looked at Sharon and smiled a genuine, happy smile at her.

"Oh yes, Sharon looks lovely tonight, but then she looks lovely most nights" About half a second after I'd spoken it suddenly hit me how that must sound. I saw Sharon quirk an eyebrow at me, while Suzy's eyes opened just a little wider. Before she could reply however Sharon stepped in, letting me off the hook.

"Well, Brenda and I work together, very closely together in fact, so she'd know" Looking at Sharon I could see a smile creeping into the corners of her mouth, but she was trying to hold it in. I had a feeling Sharon was going to get mileage about this particular conversation for months.

"I was just asking Sharon if she might like a dance" I tried not to show it, but I suddenly found myself disliking Suzy for no good reason. I nodded, giving my 'formal' smile another go.

"I completely understand and I'm sorry to interrupt, but the Commander and I need to discuss something work-related, so if you'll excuse us please Lieutenant?" Realising she was being dismissed; Suzy nodded and stepped back, smiling at Sharon.

"Perhaps later Sharon" She nodded at me "Nice meeting you Chief" I nodded.

"And you Lieutenant" Sharon smiled.

"Have a good night Suzy" As she turned and walked away Sharon looked at me with a curious expression on her face. "Brenda, is something wrong?" I shook my head as I turned to look at her.

"No, but I thought you needed a save" Her eyebrow quirked again.

"Thank you, but you didn't have to, I could have handled her" I was still feeling annoyed and some of it must have bled into my voice.

"She was hitting on you Sharon" She just looked at me for a moment, her head canted to one side, before speaking.

"Yes she was, but she was being polite about it" He small smile wasn't helping my temper or my self control.

"It didn't matter, she was trying to make a move on you" She looked at me for a moment before she spoke, her voice soft.

"I was always going to turn her down, let her down easily" I nodded, slowly coming to the uncomfortable realisation that I'd behaved like an ass, and still was. I looked away, before speaking softly.

"I'm sorry Sharon, I was stupid, I overreacted" There was silence for a few seconds before her voice came to me, soft and low.

"Brenda Leigh Johnson, were you jealous?" I looked at the floor, embarrassed. It suddenly occurred to me, she was right, I had been jealous, watching Sharon speaking to Suzy I'd let my emotions get the better of me, seeing someone else hitting on her had got me angry.

We weren't even a couple yet and I'd got all macho posturing about Sharon. I must have looked like an idiot, charging in there like a SWAT team and behaved like a fool. Sharon was a grown woman, more than capable of looking after herself and I'd behaved like a right fool.

"Oh god, you were. Brenda, you were, weren't you" I looked down at the floor, biting my lip as the shame flowed through me. I'd been jealous and acted like a possessive, insecure idiot. Sharon's hand came to rest tentatively on my arm, as she spoke, her voice soft and low.

"Brenda, look at me" Reluctantly I looked up, afraid that I'd angered or disappointed her. I wasn't prepared fro the gentle wonder in her eyes. "You were jealous weren't you?" I helplessly nodded; it was nothing but the truth. I saw a slow smile appear as she spoke.

"And protective, you were getting all territorial protecting me" I nodded again, unable to speak. "Brenda…" I had to apologise, let her know I shouldn't have done that, should have trusted her. Besides I didn't have any right to be jealous, we weren't together, not like that.

I wondered if maybe after seeing me behaving like some macho pig she'd change her mind about us.

"I'm sorry Sharon, I'm sorry, I had no right to" Sharon stepped up close, close enough that I could smell her scent, a sweet scent of lilies that I found both alluring and calming.

"Brenda Leigh Johnson, don't you ever apologise for wanting to protect me. It's been a long time since anyone wanted to protect me from being hit on, it's…nice" I glanced up at her, she was smiling at me. I bit my lip for a moment, trying to get my words in order.

"I'm really sorry Sharon, but when I saw her hitting on you, I just got angry, it didn't feel right, all I could see was that you weren't happy and I was thinking how dare she make you unhappy. I just wanted to make her disappear so you could be happy again" Sharon just kept smiling at me, before she leaned in close.

"It's a good thing that we're out here in front of everyone honey, cause if we weren't, I'd be kissing you as hard as I could right now, and I couldn't guarantee that my hands would stay where they should either"

I don't know what hit me harder, her words or the images that accompanied them. Right now I couldn't think of anything I wanted to do more than let her have her way with me. I could feel my cheeks warm at some of the thoughts, before Sharon's gentle laugh brought me back to her.

"Some of your squad are watching us honey, so smile at me please, they're probably thinking I'm embarrassing you. Please?" I swallowed before looking up and smiling at her.

"But you were embarrassing me sweetie, I was thinking about what you were saying and getting all hot and bothered" She smiled a slow, lazy, sensual smile.

"Brenda honey, I have to be honest, I've been thinking about little else since I saw you in that dress" I felt a warm rush, Sharon liked what I had on, as she'd said earlier, '_mission accomplished_'.

Before I could say anything more, we were joined by Peter Collins, the head of Tactical Response. I'd heard that Peter was happily married to a former model and had a couple of lovely kids, so I didn't expect any difficulties or unwelcome offers, unlike so many of our visitors. Indeed he was very charming, complimenting us both on how well we looked and admiring Natalie, Maura, Jane and Anastasia as well.

We chatted for a few minutes, before we were joined by Harbour Division's Captain Turner, who was also pleasant company. Together we chatted until Sharon excused herself to go to the bathroom and I looked around for a waiter for a glass of water. Both men excused themselves and I was left there alone for a moment, before I attracted a waiter who passed me a glass of water, I'd had enough to drink and mentally noted that I'd stick to water for the rest of the night.

As I drank, I noticed Natalie and Maura standing there together, smiling happily at something. I felt a warm glow inside, both women had been so good to me, taken me shopping, encouraged my relationship with Sharon, been open and honest with me when I needed it most, I was very lucky to have them as my friends, god knows what I'd done to deserve it.

Strolling over I smiled and stepped between them.

"Ladies, what are you both so happy about?" They both smiled at me before turning to look over the far side of the Major Crimes' table where Jane and Ana were standing chatting to Julio, Andy, Buzz and David and a couple of officers from other divisions, drawn to them like flies to honey. I couldn't hear what was being said, but they had the guys in stitches. Maura leaned in.

"Look at them Brenda, they play down their looks, but they're both beautiful" I nodded, indeed they were. Jane went to greater extremes than Ana to hide it, but neither of them could hide it tonight, they were stunning, what they were wearing tonight had simply allowed that to be seen by everyone. Natalie nodded.

"They don't understand how beautiful they are, say all the attention is directed at Maura and me but they're wrong. If we weren't here, they'd still be the centre of everyone's attention" Maura shook her head slowly.

"How can they not see themselves as everyone else does, how?" I nodded slowly and thought about it for a moment, before speaking softly.

"I think I know why" They both turned to me, their eyes curious. "In the last few weeks I've been privileged to hear about who they are, who you all are in fact, I've learnt a little about what makes them tick" I slowly nodded, things coming together for me as I watched the group in front of us laughing at one of Andy's stories.

"What I believe is that neither of them could see their worth, both had been incomplete before you came into their lives" I glanced across at Maura before continuing.

"Jane needed you to bring love and happiness into her life; before you became a part of her life it was pretty grim and dark, filled with all the stress that comes with the job, but with no one to share the burden. That nightmare with Hoyt must have been horrific; going through it alone would've made it even worse" I looked at Maura, who was nodding slowly. I glanced across at Natalie before looking back at Ana.

"Anastasia was trying to be who she once was, she needed you to heal. She needed you to be who she'd been and be that person again" Natalie looked back at me; a distant look in her eyes, probably remembering how Ana was when they first became lovers.

"In both cases, they were in very dark places, needing help to be whole again. They probably felt they weren't worthy of you, they couldn't see their worth" I pursed my lips, watching the subject of our discussions. Jane looked our way and her smile lit up the room. I smiled in return. "If I had to hazard a guess I'd say that both of them still question their value, how they were worthy of you both"

I looked down into my drink, thinking about what I had to say. Both Maura and Natalie were very still, aware that I had more to say.

"They probably don't see that their worthy of anyone's attention, not compared to the people who mean more than anything to them. They each love women who are amazingly beautiful and attract everyone's attention, they probably feel that's appropriate cause they don't deserve the attention, you do" Natalie looked at me, her voice low.

"I'm who I am today because of her, without her I'd be nothing. How can I make her understand that?" Maura looked at me and nodded, before her eyes returned to Jane.

"Jane is the most beautiful woman I've ever met, not just on the outside, but inside too. No matter how many times I tell her that and how much she has changed me for the better, I know she won't believe me"

I nodded, realising that both Jane and Ana were deeply indebted to Nat and Maura, to the extent that they probably couldn't see that they in any way rated compared to the stunning blondes I was standing between. They saw them as probably unattainable ideals and that they were just grateful to be with them, not understanding that Natalie and Maura were just as desperately grateful to be with them in return.

I shrugged, looking down into my glass.

"I wish I had an answer, but it's up to you. You're going to have to sit them down and tell them everything, make them understand. Good luck with that though, Ana and especially Jane will probably run a mile before they sit down and admit that they're really your equals" Natalie nodded.

"That's it, they don't think that they're our equals do they?" I shook my head.

"Almost certainly not" Maura looked at us both, realisation dawning on her face.

"They don't believe they deserve us, do they?" I tilted my head, watching them across the table as I considered the question.

"No, probably not"

"Damn" It was Nat, her voice soft and low. "Well, that's a project for another night" I saw a meaning-laden look pass between them, at which Maura nodded, then it was gone, Natalie's voice a more normal tone. "Tonight's about having fun, isn't it?"

Maura turned and smiled at me, her dimples appearing. "Yes it is, isn't it Brenda?"

"Course it is, tonight's been amazing" Natalie turned to me, before looking up at Maura, her smile conspiratorial.

"So Brenda, when are you dancing with Sharon" My brain skidded to a screeching halt at the question and it must have shown on my face, causing them both to smile.

"I, um, I'm not sure we can, she probably doesn't want to, I mean, in front of everyone and all…" At my stuttering reply both laughed out loud, catching the attention of the rest of the team, who looked at us curiously. Finally they pulled themselves together before Maura smiled at me.

"Brenda, we would never cause Sharon and yourself any embarrassment in front of your colleagues, you know that" I nodded, as Natalie spoke.

"We've organised something, so give us a moment then follow us out that door" She nodded towards one of the main entrances, as I wondered what the hell they were doing. "Trust me Brenda, it'll be worth it"

With a smile and a pat on the arm they both strolled away and I watched as they made their way over to the group that contained their partners, stepping in with an apology to the group as they leaned in to whisper something to each of their respective lovers, getting nods in return.

With a smile and a teasing look, they took their leave before they sashayed out the door indicated, eyes around the room following them as they departed.

I waited a few seconds to let the interest in their departure pass before following them out, hoping not too many people were watching. I walked out into a corridor, where I found them standing nearby, holding an elevator for me and motioning me to follow them.

Refusing to answer any questions, a short ride took us to the 26th floor, where we exited the elevator and found ourselves walking out onto a large open air terrace surrounding a sunken swimming pool, the pool's underwater lights and the lights of the city the only illumination.

The night was warm and the breeze gentle, not quite brisk enough to be chilly. The sound of soft and gentle modern jazz played out from hidden speakers, the total effect calming and lovely.

I followed them as they strolled out across the terrace and up to a glass railing, looking out over the city. Even though I was intimately familiar with the suffering to be found everywhere here in the '_City of Angels_', the sight was still breathtaking. They leaned against the railing, taking the sight in, before Nat looked back at me and indicated I should take a position between them.

I don't know how long we stood there, soaking in the beauty of a million points of lights, the rivers of lights along the freeways, the lights of the jets coming and going from LAX easily visible. I felt myself relaxing, we didn't need words, just soaked up the sights together.

Finally, I heard a faint ding in the distance, which caused Maura to turn to me.

"Brenda, thank you for accepting us and making us feel at home, we feel very comfortable being here, in LA" I smiled.

"Maura, I'm so very glad you and Jane came, you've been both very good to me" Her soft smile was clearly visible in the dim light. Natalie turned to me as well.

"You've been very welcoming to Ana and I as well Brenda. It means a lot to us both, thank you" I felt myself blushing.

"Oh for heaven's sake, you've been wonderful friends, you all have. You've been there when I needed you, helped me in all sorts of ways and made my life a lot more pleasant simply by being my friends. Really I'm the one who should be thanking you, all of you" Natalie's voice was warm and full of smiles.

"Well, I doubt that, but we do have a small gift for you" I heard footsteps behind us, the sound of heels clicking on marble and turned to see Sharon, flanked by Jane and Anastasia, strolling our way and smiling at me. I felt a flutter deep within me, seeing that smile and that look turned upon me.

"We thought you might like the chance to dance with Sharon, I mean, you've danced with everyone but the one you really want to, so we set this up so you could dance together, away from everyone else"

I smiled, as I felt the first touch of tears in my eyes, gazing upon Sharon there, smiling at me with warmth and compassion and tenderness. Whatever did I do to deserve friends like these?

I took a couple of steps forward, Sharon stepping up to meet me, before I felt her arms enfold me, pulling me close. This was the first time I'd held her like this and had her hold me. I could feel the warmth of her skin on mine as she enfolded me in her embrace, it felt so good, it felt like comfort and warmth and love.

It felt like home.

She leaned in gently and kissed me, her lips on mine, gentle and tender, she tasted of strawberries and wine and it was soft and warm and wonderful and it ended way too soon.

I could feel my heart thudding and banging in my chest, more like I'd run a race than holding someone but I couldn't help it, my body reacting to her presence here, what we were doing, what we were going to be doing, now and later.

There was a discreet cough to one side and we reluctantly broke apart to see a waiter walking towards us bearing a tray with six champaign flutes, which he quietly passed to us all, before nodding with a gentle smile and disappearing back into the hotel. I found myself tearing up again at the thoughtfulness of everything they had done for me, for us.

Standing there, an arm around each other, we stood there in the dim light as Natalie and Ana and Jane and Maura joined together and stood there, their arms around their partners and facing together in a small circle with us as we shared happy smiles.

I was so aware of Sharon's body cuddled against me, the warmth of her body where it touched mine and where my arm looped around her waist. I could smell her scent in the air, all sweet and tantalising.

The possessive feel of her arm around me and mine around her, I felt just right, we were together, we may not be officially a couple, but here tonight, we became one together.

Finally Ana spoke softly.

"I know we shared a toast downstairs, but I thought it was good enough to bear repeating here, with a small change, just for us" She raised her glass, as did we all.

"To friendship, love and new beginnings"


	72. Chapter 72

**The LAPD Ball Part 6**

Sharon's viewpoint

"To friendship, love and new beginnings"

As we drank to Anastasia's toast, I looked to my side, seeing Brenda sipping her champaign, her eyes on me, full of warmth and happiness, filling me with a feeling I hadn't experienced in years as we shared a long, deep conversation without words.

Here, standing together with her and feeling the warmth of Brenda's body against mine; the night had exceeded my wildest hopes,

I'd expected to see Brenda, talk to her, spend time with her and just enjoy her company. To actually be here, dancing with her in such a romantic setting, it was more than I could have ever dreamed of when the night began.

I reluctantly disengaged my arm from around Brenda's waist and took her glass, taking a few steps to the nearest table to place them both safely out of the way.

I turned to see her, taking in that sensational dress, which I'd been admiring all night, her lovely figure, which I'd been admiring for a lot longer and her gentle gaze as I walked back to her. I held out my hand to her and smiled.

"Dance with me?" Her smile widened, there was no hesitation in her voice as she reached for my hand.

"Oh god yes"

I stepped back, drawing her to me and raising her hand to my lips, pressing a gentle kiss to the back of her hand, garnering a soft wondering smile from her at the gesture. I hadn't planned it like that, it just came naturally and it just felt right.

I gently pulled her into my embrace, for a moment I was nonplussed, I wasn't used to leading, should she, should I? Brenda gently solved the problem for me by placing her hand at the back of my neck, letting me take the lead.

I smiled as we started to move to the beats of something vaguely west coast jazz style, guitars and drums and a tenor sax all combining into something soft and smoky as I got lost in her smile.

As we moved and turned together, I saw that both couples had joined us, three pairs moving together to the rhythm, each couple lost together.

The quiet air of the terrace was filled with the click of stiletto heels on the cool marble, the soft swish of silk against satin and gentle sighs as bodies settled against one another.

Brenda smiled up at me, before breaking out in soft giggles. I looked the question at her, which only made her giggling worse. Finally she leaned in and whispered to me.

"Why Commander Raydor, you just have to go first don't you" I grinned happily, before leaning in to her ear.

"In most things honey, but not the important things" I was about to say something more when Brenda moved even closer to me, moulding her body against mine and laying her head on my shoulder. For a moment I lost much capability for rational thought, just feeling her body against mine, her warmth setting my nerves on fire.

I let my hand slide down her back to the base of her back, marvelling in the touch of her soft skin under my fingers, I wanted to touch her, all of her, to feel her under my fingers, to explore every inch of Brenda, to learn every part of her and memorise it all, to keep that memory with me always.

Slowly, luxuriating in the fact that I could touch her, I slid my hand over her back, feeling her hum into me as I did, before she sighed gently and snuggled in even closer, Brenda's warm breath on my neck making my skin burn.

"I love your touch Sharon; it's so gentle, so nice"

"I love touching you honey; I've wanted to do nothing else all night"

"Well, now you can sweetie, all you want" The smile that broke out on my face must have stretched from ear to ear. I couldn't help it; I'd just been given permission to do the one thing I'd ached to do all night.

Brenda just smiled happily, before laying her head against my shoulder again and hugging me tight to her. The thrill that ran through me as she did couldn't be described, just experienced, as I groaned softly.

Being so close meant we couldn't really dance, more just slowly swaying and shuffling together, but I'd not a care in the world, leaning my head against hers, resting against that soft silken mass of golden hair, my eyes closed as I lost myself in the knowledge that I was here, with Brenda in my arms and the night was perfect.

I don't know how long we swayed there, until I felt Brenda's hand slowly slide teasingly down my back, I missed the contact with her skin on my shoulders, before I felt it slide down and come to rest against the base of my back, as she gently pressed me even closer to her.

I smiled to myself, when I'd decided that I wanted to pursue Brenda I'd had no idea it would move so fast or feel so good, but here I was with her in my arms, feeling her body against mine as we swayed and moved together.

As I laid my head against hers, I looked at both couples with us. I'd watched them out on the ballroom floor as they danced; they had looked so good together. When they'd swapped partners they had looked just as wonderful, but here they weren't dancing for anyone but each other.

Like Brenda and I, they weren't really dancing, they were holding each other tight and moving together, I could see Natalie and Ana kissing passionately close by, Natalie's hand in Ana's hair, the other on her behind, while both of Ana's hands were wandering across Nat's bare back in small, soft, teasing circles.

Nearby Jane and Maura were moving slowly to the rhythm, with Maura kissing and tonguing Jane's neck, exposed as she threw her head back, her eyes closed at the sensations Maura was giving her while her hands clutched at Maura's hip and neck.

Seeing them lost in pleasure was inspirational, so I gently nudged Brenda's head back from my shoulder, seeing the soft, content look on her face as she looked at me.

For a moment I bit my lip, I had Brenda Leigh Johnson in my arms, her body pressed against mine, eyes soft and warm, just for me. I just stared at her for a moment, memorising the look on her face, something I'd never thought I'd see up until a few weeks ago. Now it was there, turned on me, just for me. I couldn't help it, I blurted out the first thing that entered my mind.

"God Brenda, you're beautiful" She smiled softly at me, before I leaned in for a kiss.

Her lips were soft, warm, inviting, I don't know how long we were like that, before her mouth opened under mine and I felt her tongue against my lower lip, teasing, seeking entry, meeting mine and the tips touching and toying.

I happily opened up and let her tongue slide in, it was tentative and gentle, but as the kiss deepened, the tentativeness disappeared, replaced by something a lot bolder, as her hand slid behind my neck and held me there.

Our tongues tangled and twisted, before she pulled it back, allowing mine to pursue hers into her mouth. I slowly, tentatively explored her mouth; it was warm and welcoming, tasting of champaign and somehow chocolate.

Finally we broke for air, as we leaned together, breathing faster, our brows resting together as we stared into each other's eyes. Brenda's were sparkling and soft, god knows what mine looked like, I was lost in this woman's touch, her taste, I wanted more, I wanted all of her.

"Oh Sharon, that was soooo nice" I smiled at her soft, wondering tone, sliding my hand into her hair and gently pulling her head back, giving me access to her neck, before leaning in again and running kisses along her jaw and down her throat, coaxing a gentle groan from her as I went.

I could feel her pulse under my lips, throbbing quickly with life and excitement and passion, it thrilled me to have her life so close, the feel of her as I gently laved her skin with my tongue.

I burned to mark her, to have her carry a mark to proclaim that she was mine and for her to do the same, to let the world know I was hers but I couldn't, not yet, but soon.

I could smell orchids from her perfume and a hint of coconut from her hair as she twisted her head to one side, giving me even more access. From the urgency of the hand on the back of my neck pushing me into her harder, Brenda loved what I was doing to her.

That was only fair, as I loved doing it to her, dragging little noises from her, gasps, groans little moans and sighs as I went, feeling her body push harder against me, feeling the contact from neck to knee. Without conscious thought my other hand slid farther down, sliding over the swell of her bottom to cup one cheek, squeezing it gently and feeling her tremble.

At the same time, I kissed up her neck, before teasing her ear with the tip of my tongue, causing a shudder to run through her body and a groan to escape her lips.

Brenda's hand suddenly moved from my neck into my hair, taking hold and gently pulling me away for a moment, making me stare into her eyes, even in the darkness I could see the heat there and it took my breath away.

I had Brenda Leigh Johnson in my arms and she wanted me. That thought bounced around inside my head for a moment; driving everything else out, she…wanted…me.

I heard a low moan, before realising it had come from me, as a soft smile appeared on Brenda's lips. She wanted me and I wanted her, it couldn't get any simpler than that.

"That was lovely sweetie, now it's my turn" With that Brenda gently tugged my head back and leaned in, her tongue dragging across my neck, leaving a trail of heat behind it. I sighed, this was all I'd dreamed of these last weeks, Brenda and I together, her lips on me, my hands on her, making each other happy.

I couldn't help the little groans and sighs she was dragging from me, as her kisses worked down my neck and her fingers made gentle toying motions in my scalp, I naturally leaned my head even further back into her fingers, giving her as much access as I could.

I was lost in the sensations, the feel of her lips on my pulse point for what seemed forever before she pulled back and waited for me to come down from the cloud I'd been floating on to look at her. A soft sexy smile was waiting as I finally looked at her, before she spoke, her voice low and throaty.

"Oh Sharon, so beautiful and all mine" The words ran through me, shaking me to the core, oh god yes, I was hers alright.

"I'm yours Brenda, for as long as you'll have me" The look on her face was a mix of awe and joy, I'd made her happy and that simple act made me feel so good. Now I was going to make her mine as well.

I leaned in again and we kissed, there was nothing tentative this time, she pushed hard, thrusting her tongue into my mouth, turning me on even more at her urgency.

I slid my other hand from her neck to her butt, cupping her with both hands and pushing her even tighter into me as my hips ground into her.

I closed my lips around her tongue and gently sucked at it, sucking it in and out of my mouth, teasing the underside with mine, performing fellatio on her tongue. It was a kind of oral sex I'd always enjoyed and based on the moans I was coaxing from Brenda, she was enjoying it just as much.

I felt the hand on my back slide down further across my ass, before it parted my gowns split and landed high on my left thigh, I'd barely got used to the feeling of her touch there when it slid gently up and around, sliding under the dresses fabric and up onto my ass. I gasped at her touch as her nails teased across my ass cheek, my head falling back as she clenched my ass tight, a moan escaping me at her touch.

"Oh god"

I caught my lower lip between my teeth as I shivered and shuddered at her touch, Brenda may not been with a woman before but by god she knew how to tease.

I could hear gasps and sighs and moans from the other couples as they gave themselves to each other, lost in their love for each other.

To have Brenda here in my arms, to be able to hold her, touch her, kiss her, to be as they were with their lovers, the feeling was close to euphoric.

I let my head fall forward and we stood there, hands stilled, our foreheads resting together, a gold and auburn curtain of hair falling around our faces, leaving us alone together, staring into each other's eyes. We both spoke at the same time.

"Brenda, you're…"

"Oh my god Sharon…" We both stopped and looked at each other, smiling, before Brenda spoke.

"You first" I smirked a little, getting an answering smile.

"This time, you first" She giggled for a moment before answering.

Who knew Brenda Leigh Johnson was a giggler, I'd loved hearing her giggle tonight, to know I'd coaxed that from her. I wanted to just make her happy forever.

"Sharon, thank you, tonight, here with you, it's been wonderful" I smiled even wider.

"Honey, having you here is a dream come true" Brenda nodded.

"It feels like a dream, it's so good an all. I hope I don't wake up and find it's not real"

"Well, we'll have to wake up together to prove it's true" She smiled shyly at me, her tone soft and throaty.

"Why sweetie, are you suggesting that we should spend the night together?" I suddenly realised that this was a big step; Brenda was willing to be with me, together. Momentarily tongue tied, I just nodded, getting a huge smile in return.

"Sweetie, I can't think of anything I'd…"

Her voice was drowned by a loud explosion, momentarily leaving us stunned, as I desperately pulled Brenda to me, trying to protect her, as I realised she'd done the same to me. I frantically looked around as a crescendo of shattering glass filled the air.

Seeing nothing I next heard a thin keening noise, unsure for a moment of what it was before it hit me, it was the sound of people screaming in the distance.

"What the hell was that?" Jane had Maura held close, looking around frantically for any threat.

"It can't be, no, no, not here" I turned to see Ana, her voice full of pain and disbelief, stepping back from where she was holding a shocked Natalie, before letting her go and running to the edge of the terrace and looking down.

"Oh fuck no" Her voice was low and full of horror and pain. Brenda stood straight, stepping away from me, but with one hand still on my arm.

"What is it Ana? What's happened?" Her question was echoed by the rest of us.

She slowly turned, even in the dim light I could see the haunted expression on her face, causing Natalie to jerk forward towards her, one hand reaching out for her, desperate for Ana's touch.

Anastasia's voice was distant and a bit hollow, as if dazed.

"Someone's just set off a car bomb in front of the hotel; it looks like a suicide bombing"


	73. Chapter 73

**Balls and bombings**

Natalie's viewpoint

By the time we got back to the ballroom it had started to empty out. We met up with the rest of the Major Crimes squad, collected our clutches and made our way down to the foyer.

I was scared, not for me, the danger was over now, but for Ana. She'd been through suicide bombings before, in Afghanistan and Iraq; they'd haunted her, as so much of her time there had.

When we'd first become friends, then lovers, she'd been plagued by nightmares from her time there, plenty of nights I'd woken to hear her whimpering and thrashing in her sleep, once or twice I'd found her still asleep, but sobbing, tears running down her face. I'd just held her and soothed her until she'd either drifted back to sleep or woken up, when I'd sometimes been able to coax her into talking about it.

I'd managed to learn that she had survived two suicide bombings, both times out of pure luck, in one case she had walked around a corner just as the bomber set his vest off, in the other the bulk of an armoured Humvee between where she was standing and the bomber had saved her.

She'd seen the aftermath of many more, the horror's seen imprinted deep into her mind.

The haunted look on her face as she'd turned to us, to me, shook me to the core, Ana hadn't been plagued by nightmares for more than two years, I was desperately afraid this would take her back there.

I stayed as close as I could to her, unwilling to leave her be alone, she knew I was concerned; I kept getting little looks that let me know how much she needed me there, her hand in mine when we could. Ana was the strong one, but she needed me right now and there was no way I'd leave her side.

Emerging out of the lifts into the foyer the place was a disaster, every piece of glass had been shattered and sent flying, cutting down staff and guests alike. Police in tuxedos and gowns applying rudimentary first aid to victims, outside I could see staff and guests playing a fire hose over the burning and gutted wreck of a car, it looked like a stretch Humvee limo, surrounded by the remnants of the glass façade of the hotel, shattered in the blast.

I could see sprays and rivulets of blood everywhere, the moans and cries of victims, sometimes interspersed with the screams of someone reacting to first aid. As I looked around sirens announced the arrival of the first Black and White's, followed a few seconds later by the first of a fleet of ambulances, thank god.

Ana was looking around, her eyes darting from place to place, anxiety all over her face.

"Ana, what's up? What's wrong?" She turned, grabbing Brenda who was standing a few feet away.

"Brenda, we need to clear as many people out of here as we can, sometimes suicide bombers set up a second bomb, timed to catch first responders" Brenda listened, her face grim, then turned to look over the scene, before calling her squad together. I noticed Sharon standing beside her, unwilling to stray too far from Brenda's side.

"Ok everyone, we need to clear as many people out of here as we can, this is a crime scene as well as a trauma site, so let's get people cleared out" Most of the squad nodded, but Michael looked around before speaking.

"Can we do that Chief? I mean if it's a terrorist attack the Feds will take the scene" Brenda just shook her head tightly, obviously not willing to wait.

"No Lieutenant, Agent Romanov's just pointed out that often terrorists set a second bomb, timed to go off to get rescuers, I want as many people as possible out of here in case she's right" Sharon nodded.

"The Chief's right, I don't see anyone higher in rank right now so that makes her senior officer and scene commander" I looked around, looking for Pope, but I didn't see him. Brenda's voice brought me back, full of command and authority, bringing order from the chaos.

"Get moving people, get them up and out of here and send one of those uniformed officers to me, with a radio, we need to get on top of this now"

Over the next few minutes we moved as many people as we could out of the foyer, the sound of broken glass raw under our feet, setting up a makeshift triage centre in a nearby conference room, where they started taking the worst of the injured out the loading dock and into a gathering fleet of ambulances for transport to hospitals around the city, as the terrorist critical incident plan swung into action.

Brenda was on the radio, calling for specialist units; sniffer dogs, the bomb squad and the mobile command post to be despatched, bringing some sort of order to the chaos.

Ana was on her cell to the FBIs LA office, briefing in the duty officers and getting the federal bureaucracy groaning into some sort of action.

Ana had tried to get me to stay out of the foyer, leaving her to work there, but I'd brooked no argument. When she told me she was concerned for my safety I'd lost it.

"Fuck that Ana, I'm not going anywhere without you and you're going nowhere without me, I'm not letting you out of my sight" She shook her head.

"It's not safe here, you should get out of here" I just got angrier at her words.

"If it's not safe then why're you here then, Are you going to leave?"

"I can't this is my job" I just stood there, my arms crossed as I stared at her.

"And where you go, I go, so get used to it" I could tell she was pissed at me, she really wanted me to be safe, but there was no way I was going to leave her, fortunately she was distracted as Pope came up, calling her name.

"Romanov, I need you talking to the FBI and the Homeland Security people. You're point liaison officer on this case, grab whatever resources you need for this" Her head bobbed as she took it in.

"Who's lead for the LAPD on this one Chief?" He looked around; his face a grim mask as he watched a man in a tuxedo, probably an officer, being helped limping from the foyer, blood soaking through his shredded pants leg, helped by two others in tuxedos, before he replied.

"Chief Johnson for the moment; if this is a terrorist attack then that makes it a Federal case. At the moment that's what it looks like, but until the Feds take over, its Johnson's case" We both nodded as Brenda strode up, Sharon close behind.

"Will, we have a victim count" Pope just nodded grimly, waiting for the worst. "43 victims with a range of injuries including 11 officers, plus two dead civilians and whoever was in the car" I was surprised; looking at the devastation I expected it to be much worse. David looked up as a thought hit him.

"Chief, we probably need to get the rooms checked, the bomb will have blown the windows in on the rooms at the front of the building" Brenda nodded in agreement.

"Good idea David. Please get the hotel staff to start searching rooms, they'll have master keys to get into everywhere" He nodded and walked towards the remains of the reception area as Andy Flynn walked up.

"We got lucky Chief; they just finished checking in a tour group of seniors from Alabama, over a hundred of them, here to do Disneyland and the studio tours. The last of them had just gone up to their rooms when the blast hit"

I looked around at the rivulets of blood criss-crossing the floor, this was lucky?

My eyes picked up on Maura walking this way; I remembered she'd stepped in to help with the injured. She didn't seem to notice the blood smeared on her dress. Jane was at her side, another who felt the need to stay close to the one they loved, here amongst the devastation.

"Chief Pope, Chief Johnson. The majority of the injuries were caused by flying glass, generally lacerations of varying degrees. Several victims will lose an eye; the damage is probably too severe to save their sight. The two dead were apparently closest to the car when it exploded" Jane nodded before speaking up.

"One was the doorman, the other a guest standing close to the front window, the doorman was blown through the door and had an artery sliced open on the glass, he bled out before anyone could have helped him" I remembered a nice young man smiling and holding the door for us when we arrived, oh god.

I tried hard to put that thought behind me. I had to be strong for Ana; she had enough on her plate without worrying about me.

"The other victim had a shard of glass embed itself through the eye socket into the brain. Maura says it was pretty much instantaneous" We watched as members of the dog squad started fanning out, the dogs looking for another bomb, desperately hoping they wouldn't find one. Pope nodded and turned back to us.

"I want the names of each officer injured and which hospital they're in, we need to get families notified ASAP" Everyone nodded at that, families took precedence, especially for our own.

Captain Collins walked up to us, his expression grim.

"I've got four of my team down, they were waiting for a cab when it went off, not life-threatening, but they'll be off for a few weeks" Pope nodded, losing four members of the Tactical Response team wasn't good. "Who the hell did this to us, Al Qaida, someone domestic?"

"I don't think it was a terrorist or at least not a competent one" I turned to look at Ana, her voice pensive; she was suddenly the centre of everyone's attention.

"Why" it was Pope, marginally faster than Brenda and a couple of the others.

"If this was a half-way competent attack everyone in the foyer would have been dead and the front of the hotel would be gone" She indicated where the smouldering ruin of the bombed out vehicle sat halfway up the driveway, watched by fire crews. "The bomb vehicle looks like a stretch Hummer limo; you could pack something like that with enough explosive to demolish the entire front of the hotel" Collins nodded abruptly.

"She's right, especially if they'd waited until they were under the overhang, more likely to take out the building's structural supports that way, god knows terrorists have bombed enough hotels over the years to work that out"

Ana looked around, taking in the damage.

"Has anyone been out to the vehicle yet" We all shook our heads, we'd been too busy. She turned to Julio. "Can you go check, see if you can smell diesel or ammonia" Brenda nodded at Julio's questioning look and walked out through the hole that had been the plate glass window. Collins nodded slowly.

"You're thinking anfoh?" Ana nodded as the rest of us looked on, I'd never heard the word; everyone except Collins and Ana looked as confused as I felt, except for Maura of course. It figured.

"Ammonium nitrate/fuel oil or A.N.F.O. as it is usually abbreviated; is a common explosive comprising pellet's of ammonium nitrate and a fuel oil, commonly diesel. It's used for a mining and a range of other domestic uses" Ana nodded at Maura's dissertation.

"The stuff's easily manufactured and you can find the recipe on the net. It's rarely used by terrorists unless they can't get their hands on more capable explosives" Collins looked out at the vehicle as we saw Julio walking around the wreck.

"It's what they call a low explosive, the shock wave propagates slower than the speed of sound, so you need a lot of it to make up for the low power compared to high explosives. Back in Iraq the Jihadists used ANFO when they couldn't get their hands on military grade high explosives" He sighed, looking around the foyer.

"Most car bombs using ANFO there were SUVs and trucks cause they could carry more than a car. Once they started getting military grade explosive, they'd use them in suicide vests and motorcycles as you didn't need the bulk to do the job"

Pope looked around at the wreckage.

"It looks like they did well enough"

Brenda just pursed her lips, I could practically hear her mind turn over as she watched Julio turn and walk back towards us.

"So you're saying it should have been much worse?" Collins and Ana both nodded before she spoke.

"Done right no one in here should have survived" Ana looked around as Julio walked up to us.

"Yep, it stinks of ammonia and there's definitely a smell of diesel, the lab will have to confirm it when they tow it back in" Ana's head snapped round.

"Tow it?" Julio looked surprised.

"Yeah, the fronts wrecked, but the rest is intact" I looked out, you couldn't really see too well out there in the dark, the explosion had knocked out the lighting outside and the angle meant you couldn't really see the rear of the limo. Ana turned to Pope and Brenda.

"If it's a terrorist attack their either rank amateurs or completely inept. Done right that car should have been completely destroyed, along with most of the front of the building" Collins nodded in agreement as Ana continued.

"The intention is to have enough explosive to destroy the vehicle, mixing shrapnel from the car with the shockwave to cause maximum damage. If the rear of the car's there it suggests the explosive amount was fairly small and concentrated up front" I watched rapt as she held court, capturing everyone's attention as she thought it through.

"If the car's only partly wrecked it probably means that they only used a small amount, which doesn't sound right, not for a terrorist attack" Collins spoke backing Ana up.

"Yeah, with ANFO more is always better, god knows it's not that hard to get, or that expensive" Ana nodded.

"We need to find out who was in that car, it might have been a hit rather than a proper terrorist attack" Brenda nodded, before turning to Michael.

"Lieutenant, can you get the tag number run, see who owns that limo" He nodded. Sharon had been standing there quietly but leaned forward, murmuring something to Brenda quietly, who nodded and turned to her squad.

"Lieutenant Flynn, Detective Sanchez, we need to find out if a possible target was here, staying in the hotel or visiting. Talk to the management and get them to provide you with a list"

Pope spoke up from where he'd been watching.

"Until we know otherwise we're treating this as a terrorist incident, is that clear?" Heads nodded in response. "Oh fuck, already? That's just what we need" We looked up to see him staring out into the darkness where a camera crew was filming. Pope turned to me, indicating the crew outside with his thumb. "Dearing, get out there and deal with them"

"What do you want me to say?" Pope looked frustrated.

"I don't know, just don't mention terrorists, got it?" I nodded, mentally editing what I would say. "And don't say anything that might piss the Feds off either" he turned away as I shot him a venomous look from behind his back. _Thanks for nothing_.

I could see Sharon and Ana both watching me; Sharon rolling her eyes while Ana gave me a supportive smile. I reached out and gave her arm a quick comforting rub before I turned away.

Screwing my temper down, I walked over to the nearest bathroom to get neat before venturing out in front of the camera crew's that I saw had gathered out the front beyond the scene tape. As I did I saw Jane watching me, I nodded towards Ana and she slowly nodded, they'd be there for her, which was a load off my mind.

20 minutes later I walked over to the mobile HQ semi-trailer to get an update; it was a scene of semi-chaos. Looking up at a whiteboard I could see an updated victim count, 52 injured but no more deaths thank god. I looked up and caught Provenza's eye.

"Find more?" he nodded.

"Yeah, people in some of the lower rooms hit by flying glass when the blast blew in their windows. Mostly superficial though" I nodded, smiling in thanks, looking up at a familiar voice to see the Bureau's Assistant Director Martinez talking to Pope and Brenda, hopefully smoothing out any jurisdiction friction.

I couldn't see Ana so I went looking for her, I needed to see she was ok, given the chaos here. I found her standing with Jane and Maura in the foyer, chatting about the night as I walked up and spoke.

"Hey" She turned and a welcome smile appeared.

"Hey you" I looked over at Jane and Maura, Jane caught my eye and nodded gently, they'd been keeping an eye on Ana. Once again I felt so grateful that we'd found them, that we had such good friends to count on.

I reached out and linked my fingers with Ana's for a moment, just happy to feel her touch, it grounded me, brought me home to her.

We stood there for a moment, looking out over the scene, wondering how long before we'd be released to head home, it was getting very late, or very early, depending on how you saw it.

"Excuse me?" We turned to see a young officer standing there. Maura answered for us.

"Yes Officer…Murphy?" She was reading his badge. I noticed he was a very young officer.

"There's a guy over there that says he needs to talk to you and you" He indicated Ana and I, running his eyes over us. "Probably wants a booty call and thinks your available" He snickered a little, obviously amused.

I felt anger rise inside and saw Ana's jaw harden but before we could say anything Jane leaned in, her voice low and threatening.

"You don't know us so I'll excuse the disrespect, just this once. That's Special Agent Romanov and the Department's media manager, Ms Dearing to you. Do you understand Officer Murphy?" He stood a little straighter as Ana and I exchanged a quick glance full of humour.

"Uh, yes ma'am" That didn't help him as Jane leaned further into his personal space.

"That's Doctor Isles and I'm Detective Rizzoli of Major Crimes, remember it, because I'll remember you" He nodded, a '_deer in the headlight_s' look in his eyes. Jane nodded once, before turning to us. "Looks like someone needs to see you" She looked across at the now fidgeting young officer and looked him up and down, making him stand if anything even straighter. "Dismissed Murphy"

As he practically ran away Ana and I nodded our thanks while Maura chuckled softly, obviously used to Jane's manner.

"Jane, I think you may have caused that young officer to reconsider his career choice" Jane didn't move, looking after where he had fled.

"Good, I hate sexist pigs" We shared a smile before I spoke.

"Thanks Jane, I appreciate it" Ana nodded her thanks as well as I looked around for whoever wanted to talk to us. Standing there on the other side of the tape was the guy we'd seen before, the one with the rapper. I leaned in to Ana.

"Is that the guy…?" She nodded.

"The CPP guy, yeah, let's have a chat" Ana waved him over and he ducked under the tape and walked over.

"Hi, thanks for talking to me" He had a dark complexion and a moustanche, looked very fit, no nonsense in his face; he looked at us, sized us up and accepted us all in one go. It was actually a bit disconcerting. Ana handled the introductions.

"Special Agent Romanov of the FBI, my LAPD colleagues Doctor Isles, Detective Rizzoli and Ms Dearing. How can we help?"

"My names William Harakaia, I work for Talisman Personal Services, we do protection services for VIPs facing a credible threat. I'm here as part of a team protecting a rapper, D-Crypt" I couldn't place his accent, it was soft but there. Jane nodded.

"Interesting, but what's the connection Mr Harakaia" He shrugged.

"That car out there, that's the limo that we came in" Quick looks were exchanged all round as he continued. "It was being driven by one of our team, Tony Jefferson"


	74. Chapter 74

**Who guards the guardians Part 1**

Sharon's viewpoint

It was a strange way to conduct an interview. Six women in evening gowns investigating a possible terrorist attack, could this night get any stranger?

I sighed; certainly this hadn't been how I'd envisioned spending my evening when I'd left home tonight. I mean here I was, spending the evening with Brenda, but sure as hell not as I'd hoped an hour ago when we'd been dancing together impossibly close on the terrace.

I'd imagined taking her home, losing ourselves in each other, discovering that tempting body so beautifully packaged inside her lovely dress and exploring the sounds of pleasure I could coax from her all night long.

Instead I'd been standing in the command trailer with Brenda when Jane had asked her to come inside as they had a lead on the driver of the wreck now decorating the driveway of the hotel. In turn she'd looked at me and raised an eyebrow, before summoning me with a nod of her head and a smile.

Following her inside the foyer we had been introduced to a man who claimed to know the identity of the driver and the possible motivation for the attack.

We were now sitting in a small room in the back of the hotel, Brenda and I, Maura and Jane, Natalie and Anastasia, all sitting around in a semi-circle as William Harakaia took a seat.

Brenda led off, as my iPhone lay recording on the table in front of our witness.

"Could you please state your name and occupation please?"

"William Harakaia, personal protection specialist"

"Mr Harakaia, could you please repeat what you told Agent Romanov a few minutes ago"

"Sure, the vehicle that blew up outside the hotel was the one that the group I was providing protection to arrived here in this evening. It was being driven by one of my team mates, Tony Jefferson" Brenda nodded.

"You mentioned a group that you were providing protection to; could you give us some details about them please?"

"Talisman Personal Services provide protection services to VIPs who feel their personal safety's at risk. The company was contacted to provide protection to a rap artist known as D-Crypt; threats had been made against his life so his record company wanted him protected"

"What was the nature of the threat?"

"D-Crypt apparently slept with the girlfriend of a rapper from New York, that was bad enough, but then he'd pushed out a song boasting about it, which pissed off the boyfriend. Threats were made and his record company decided D-Crypt needed some protection, at least until this blew over" Brenda frowned, possibly at his choice of words.

"If there was a threat against this rappers life, why wasn't the police notified?" Harakaia laughed; a genuine belly laugh. Eventually he subsided enough to talk.

"With these guys, it's not good for the street cred to call in the co…police. I swear these punks and their precious reputations… Complete tools, y'know" Several of us nodded as he continued.

"This sort of thing happens a lot, it's practically an institution in the rap game, they have these stupid feuds running all the time" He shrugged. "Idiotic I know, but it means there's usually work for people like me" Brenda, nodded, taking it in.

"Do you know the name of the person who D-Crypt had the feud with?"

"Oh yeah, a guy going by the name of G.B.H…" He shrugged. "Obviously not his real name but they love their aliases, makes them sound tough"

"Had there been any explicit threats made by G.B.H. that you're aware of Mr Harakaia?"

"Look, can you call me Bill, I'm not really a mister, just a guy doing his job" Brenda smiled that lovely, charming smile, setting him at ease.

"Why of course Bill, call me Brenda, and these are Sharon, Maura and Jane. I understand that you've already met Natalie and Anastasia" He nodded.

"Well, not formally, but they kinda stayed in my memory when they poured cold water on Paul's proposition earlier, so I asked to see them" He nodded at Ana and Nat. "They're kinda hard to forget" He looked around at us and smiled. "Hell you all are"

Brenda nodded and ducked her head before looking back up at him and smiling softly, using that Southern charm of hers, I swear that woman was born to this.

"Why thank you Bill, that's very kind. Now about those threats…"

"Oh yeah, no, nothing explicit like a note, instead they were taking the piss out of each other with their songs. They're releasing songs out to their fans via the net, trash talking each other, basically giving each other shit. Apparently that's how these things are carried out. It's an East coast West coast thing"

"In what way?" It was Natalie, asking quietly.

"Oh, the main recording studios are in New York or LA, they have a different sound and image and don't get on. These sorts of feuds happen regularly apparently, it's like product differentiation, these different sounds I mean. Could have fooled me, to be honest it all sounds like shit to me" Brenda smiled as I saw Bill warming up to us. I'd watched her do so many interviews, she could be the good cop or the bad cop as the situation called for. Tonight was good cop.

"So D-Crypt was affiliated with a local studio, which one?"

"Oh yeah, he was signed to Street Cred Studios. I know, I sure as hell hadn't heard of them either before this job, but they were paying the bills. Apparently D-Crypt's a rising star of theirs" He rolled his eyes at us. "I have my own opinion of him but that's not really important is it?" Brenda smiled winningly.

"Sure it is Bill; you're the man on the spot. Tell us about him" A look of distaste crossed Bill's face as he spoke.

"He's a street gang punk, plays all suave and flashes the gold and shit around, but it's all flash. Underneath that he's a street punk, not even a good one. He's got a silver tongue, quick with the words y'know, but it's all a kinda veneer, underneath it he's a low grade piece of shit" Brenda nodded slowly.

"Why"

"I've watched him, he sends his mate Paul out, trolling for women, especially the really pretty ones like these two" He indicated Natalie and Anastasia. "Once they come and party he turns on the charm, gets them drunk and high then he fucks them over. He likes it rough, very physical. Once he's finished, he hands them over to his gang of mates to use. It's pretty ugly" Jane leaned forward.

"You think that's what happened to that other rapper's girlfriend?" Bill nodded at her.

"Sure, they told me they'd showed her a good time 'West coast style' apparently" His disgust was obvious. "She was apparently out here visiting friends and shopping, she and a girlfriend went out to a club, D-Crypt got them drunk and did them both, then handed them over to his mates like usual" Ana frowned.

"And you were ok with that?" Bill looked up at her.

"It happened before we were brought on board, but to answer your question, no. I get paid to keep people safe, not be their conscience. I see a lot of things, some of them nasty, a lot borderline illegal, but I protect celebrities. Not exactly a great collection of human beings to start with hey" Brenda looked up at him.

"So he and his friends used these girls and sent them home, then boasted about it in his music? Charming" Bill nodded.

"Brenda, welcome to my world. Many of the celebrities I deal with, I personally wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire, but I get paid to protect them, not like them. I protect them from crazed fans, psycho stalkers, obsessed exes, rivals and god knows what else. I mean I don't blame G.B.H. for what he wants to do. If he'd done that to my wife or girlfriend, I wouldn't rap about it, D-Crypt and his mates; they'd already be dead, you don't fuck with family y'know?"

Looking at him I didn't doubt he'd do it, he looked like someone you didn't wish to mess with. Brenda continued the questioning.

"What can you tell me about your partner, Tony Jefferson?" Bill shook his head.

"Tony was a good guy. I'd worked with him on a few jobs before. Good at his job, he was a pro right. Careful, thorough, I was happy to have him on the team. He has a girlfriend, someone's gonna have to tell her" He sighed. "That's Carl's job I suppose"

"Who's Carl?" It was Anastasia.

"Huh, oh, Carl Walters, he's the boss of Talisman Personal Services. He's the guy who started the company and he recruited me, recruited all of us actually. Good guy. He'll probably be down here soon, Freddie's already phoned him in to bring him up to speed" Brenda nodded.

"Freddie?"

"Oh, sorry, he's the third member of the team doing protection tonight. We do a 12 hour shift, then another team takes over, then a third team takes over. We share the work, so we work 12 in 36, means we stay sharp. He's babysitting D-Crypt until we can get a new car and a new team here to take over the watch" I leaned forward.

"So you actually have nine people assigned to watch D-Crypt? That's a lot of manpower for one person. How much does it cost for your services?"

"It's not cheap, about 15 thousand a day for a full team, depends on the job really, often it's just one or two of us, it depends on the threat level. We were told there was a credible threat and that Street Cred Studios were willing to pay the money until they could get things calmed down with G.B.H. and his studio" He shook his head sadly. "Looks like they were right" His head came up and he looked around at us all and sighed.

"First time we've lost a detail member, as far as I'm aware. I mean we've had people injured, but killed? First time, to a car bomb for fuck's sake. I'd thought I'd seen the last of those in the sandpit" Ana leaned forward.

"Iraq or Afghanistan?" He looked over at her.

"The 'stan. Did three tours there, that's where I met some of the other guys in the company"

"I've been trying to place your accent Bill, its familiar. What's your background?" He nodded at Anastasia.

"Kiwi; LA's a long way from Auckland for a bastard Maori pakeha eh?" Brenda looked confused.

"Pakeha?" Maura answered.

"New Zealand born of European ancestry, Bill's ancestry is part European, part Maori" He nodded at her, respect in his eyes.

"You're good, real good. I doubt one in a million people outside New Zealand knows what a Pakeha is" Maura blushed slightly and smiled. Ana nodded and drew the conversation back to the original thread.

"What unit, the Regiment?" He looked at her for a moment, appraising her, before nodding.

"Yeah, what about you, you were there weren't you" Ana nodded.

"One tour there, another in Iraq. You mentioned that you met other people working for Talisman there?"

"Oh yeah, Carl was a Navy SEAL, he worked closely with other special forces guys, we all did. Anyway, we kept in contact. When he got back and got out, he started doing close personal protection for celebrities. Lots of people need some kinda protection and a SEAL; that's quality, people recognised that. Business took off and he started recruiting people from similar backgrounds. I was thinking of getting out, seen too much y'know" Ana nodded quietly as they shared a look.

"Anyway, I got an email from Carl, outlining what he was doing and offering me a job. It sounded like interesting, kinda safe work, so I said yes. All the protection people are ex-Special Forces guys from a bunch of different countries, so we can offer the right skills to match the threat" He shook his head. "Sorry, I sound like a sales brochure" Brenda nodded.

"So you were part of a three person team looking after D-Crypt. Did you see any other threats before tonight?"

"Nothing concrete, I mean the studio was taking it seriously; they were the ones picking up the tab. We'd been babysitting D-Crypt for almost a fortnight, so it was costing serious money, but nothing to indicate a threat until tonight" Brenda looked up from the iPhone lying on the table recording everything.

"Was Tony in the car the whole time?" Bill nodded.

"Yep, standard operating procedure, don't leave the vehicle unattended for exactly this reason. That's why we do three people, two stay with the principal while one covers the transport" Jane looked up, curiosity visible in her eyes.

"We initially thought it was a terrorist attack, you're suggesting it wasn't and they were after D-Crypt. Could they have been after your partner" Bill sat there for a moment, thinking it over.

"I suppose it's possible, I mean he was a Green Beret, tours in half the hell holes of the world in the last decade plus, he could have had enemies. Mind you, you could say the same about any of us y'know. All ex-Special Forces, none of us on Al Qaida's Christmas card list" Brenda frowned.

"But you don't think it's their work?" He shook his head.

"Nah, not big enough, not enough collateral damage, too many survivors, it ain't them"

I thought about the work they did, thoughts rolling around in my head. I spoke up, catching his attention.

"You mentioned that you provided protection services to celebrities. Could this have been something to do with a previous job Tony, you or some of the others might have done for a celebrity, something coming back to bite you"

Bill sat there for a moment, his mind spinning. I had to remind myself this man was no mall guard. All the US Special Forces community people I'd ever met had impressed me with their intelligence, over and above their other skills they were smart. Most of them were at least bilingual, usually had a degree or two in various useful subjects and extremely capable at what they were trained at.

I doubt that other countries Special Forces people were any different, if they were it was unlikely that a US Navy SEAL would have hired them. Bill slowly nodded his head.

"I suppose it's possible, we protect some weird people, not all of them all that stable. The worst are the rap stars" Brenda nodded.

"Go on, why are they the worst?" Bill smiled at her.

"Most of them think they're tough, some of them came up from the street and may be, but they also think ownership of an Uzi proves they're tough" Bill snorted a bit, a professional commenting on amateurs.

"Then there's the people they hang around with, their posse. Most of them carry guns as well, no training, but they carry guns. First rapper I did protection for, a car backfired one night while we were out, me and the other protection specialist jumped on the principal and pushed him to the ground, his posse stood around like dick heads, pulling guns out and waving them round" He shook his head at the memory.

"Most of them carried automatic weapons with the safety off; bloody amateurs. One even had a gold-plated Uzi for god's sake" Bill just looked at us, then shook his head slowly. "I thought shit like that was an urban legend, turns out I was wrong. The way they were waving guns around, if one of them had sneezed they would have killed each other" He shrugged. "No great loss, but we rapidly came to the conclusion that the biggest threat we faced was the posse" Brenda leaned forward.

"Do you think it's likely it was someone like that?"

"People with a mentality like that; they fix problems with a gun or a knife. I suppose it could be someone like them, but car bombs aren't really their style" Maura spoke up, a look of concentration on her face.

"Who knew that Tony would be driving the car?" Bill looked at her and nodded.

"Good question. It could have been any of us; I drove last time. Tony was tired of dealing with the crap we were getting from D-Crypt's mates, so he chose to drive, it meant he got to spend the night away from them in the car" I saw Brenda's eyes narrow, probably at the same thing I was. Catching her eye I nodded and she tipped her head slightly to me to go ahead.

"When was the decision made as to who would be driving?"

About an hour before we left, we told Paul, D-Crypts manager, who would be doing which job tonight" Brenda nodded.

"Bill, you mentioned you were getting crap from your principal, what kind of crap?" Bill looked across at Brenda.

"Not from D-Crypt, he was cool that way; he'd happily sit with us and listen to some of the things we'd done, he was interested y'know? I don't like the man but he was willing to listen, to learn. It was his posse, some of them didn't like the fact that D-Crypt had some new people around"

"Why not" It was Jane asking the question. Bill turned to look at her.

"Most of them were hangers on, D-Crypt pays for their lifestyle as part of his entourage, so they don't appreciate new people in their patch, even if we are only there for a short while" Ana nodded slowly.

"Anyone in particular not happy?"

"A couple; I didn't have an issue, but Tony may have been seen as more of a threat, all things considered" Natalie tilted her head as she considered Bill

"But why him in particular Bill, why Tony rather than you or the other member of your team, Freddie?" Bill looked up, surprise on his face.

"Oh, Freddie and I were the wrong colour to fit into their world, Tony was black"


	75. Chapter 75

The characters within this story are the property of their respective rights holders, thanks for letting us have our way with them, if only for a little while.

**Who guards the guardians Part 2**

Jane's viewpoint

We were still sitting there, digesting Bill's last comment, when there was a quiet knock on the door. At Brenda's call Gabriel walked in and whispered a message to her. She nodded and looked around the room before turning and replying.

"Please ask him to wait, we should be through here shortly" David nodded and left, as we turned our attention back to Bill and Brenda continued.

"Could you please explain what you mean by that last statement Bill" He shrugged.

"Everyone in D-Crypt's circle's black, oh sorry, African American. We were tolerated at best because of our skills, but Tony, well he fitted in. D-Crypt really liked him; I think he looked up to him a bit. That didn't go down too well with some of D-Crypt's people; they saw him as a threat"

I nodded, from what I'd heard, in a lot of these groups the hangers-on were tied to the meal ticket through friendship, they often had little else to offer than being there to hang with the star and make them feel good. If Tony Jefferson was as good as his past as a Green Beret suggested, then he had a lot to offer someone like D-Crypt.

That would make a number of people very nervous, but enough to do something stupid? Possibly, but as Bill had suggested, car bombings weren't their style. Ana nodded and spoke.

"Anyone in particular have issues with Tony?"

"A couple, he was a pretty impressive guy, made most of them look like the piss weak poseurs they are" It occurred to me that the poor guy was probably getting whiplash, Bill was copping the questions from all of us, even Maura had gotten in on the act. Brenda took up the questioning again.

"Anyone specific" Bill sat there for a moment, obviously considering it, before slowly nodding.

"Three guys had issues I guess. Two of his posse, Truck and J-Bow both made it clear they didn't like him. Both like their guns; thought that was all it took to make Tony back down. Stupid, Truck went for a gun during an argument; Tony took it off him and told him if he was ever stupid enough to pull a gun on him again, he was dead"

I frowned, that sounded like motivation and intent to me. Sharon spoke up next.

"What about J-Bow?" Bill snorted.

"He's a useless punk; after he saw Tony in action, he backed off, started bad mouthing Tony behind his back. Probably all talk, but you never know I suppose"

"You mentioned three people Bill, who was the third?" It was Natalie, who'd been quiet for a while.

"Oh, that'd be Paul. D-Crypt's manager Paul Weatherly" Bill nodded to Natalie and Ana. "He's the guy you met outside. He's the face man, handles all the negotiations and the dealings with record companies, he's smoother than the rest of the posse, dresses better, speaks better. He's superficially charming; hence that's why he tried to talk you two into partying with them tonight. He's the one who tried to negotiate a truce with G.B.H. and his studio, Hard Time Records." Natalie nodded as Maura smiled and stepped back into the conversation.

"May I ask what his problem was with your associate?"

"Oh, Paul was D-Crypt's go to guy, he organised everything, Paul was the closest to D-Crypt, but when Tony turned up, D-Crypt took a shine to him. Found him more interesting, more likeable I suppose, he'd sometimes blow Paul off to spend time talking with Tony, which didn't go down too well, pissed him off in fact"

"I see" Brenda looked around at us. "Where were D-Crypt and his posse tonight?"

"They had dinner in one of the restaurant's here, LA Market. They were planning on heading to a nightclub afterwards, which is when Tony was called and asked to bring the car round" She nodded.

"Who called him?"

"I did, I rang his mobile and told him to come round. I was waiting for his call that he was out the front to bring the group through the foyer and into the car, that way no one's standing around out in the open" Brenda looked around again, looking at each of us in turn, then turned back to Bill.

"Bill, your boss, Carl Walters is here and we'll need to speak to him, but could I ask you to please wait around until after we finish talking to him, if you don't mind that is?" He smiled.

"Brenda, that's gotta be one of the nicest orders I've ever got, specially from the police. I'll wander back and brief in the new team taking over D-Crypt's security, then hang around until you need me" Brenda smiled, her charm on full blast..

"Why thank you so much for your help Bill, we all appreciate it" There was a murmur of thanks from everyone in the room.

Brenda accompanied him to the door and passed him to Gabriel, then asked Walters to be brought in to the room in a few minutes.

I sat back as I considered what we'd been told. Bill had been straightforward with us, answered everything we'd asked and as far as I was concerned his answers had helped clear things up.

Brenda walked back and stood next to Sharon, smiling down at her for a moment, before taking us in.

"Well, that was interesting. What does everyone think? Should we hand over to the Feds or ask them to go home?" Ana looked up from where she'd been gazing into the floor.

"Not a terrorist attack, too localised, not enough explosive, this was an assassination, not a bombing" Brenda looked at me, I shrugged in return.

"Don't think it was a terrorist attack either, looks like if we toss that theory in the trash we're left with an attack on D-Crypt or on Tony Jefferson. We need more info on the New York rapper before I'd write him off, but I'm leaning to Tony being the target" Brenda nodded.

"I'm leaning the same way, but we do need more on this G.B.H. person. Unfortunately we won't get anything for hours from New York, given the time zone difference" Maura suddenly looked up, catching my eye, before she raised an eyebrow, asking the question. I thought about it for a moment and then nodded.

"I might be able to help there Chief" Brenda looked back at me. "I have a friend who I could ring; she'd pull the info for us if I asked"

"Jane, it's after midnight in New York, it's too late to call" I smiled.

"Olivia is a friend, she'd do it if we needed, besides, it's not like she's not used to getting late calls, it's part of the job really" I could see Brenda was interested, even as her Southern manners said no.

"Who's your friend Jane; and why would you even think of getting her out of bed at this time of night?"

"Olivia Benson, a detective with the NYPD, a damn good one. She's also a friend, a very good friend" I could see Brenda wavering.

"Let me call her and see; one call"

"No, we couldn't, it's not worth it to upset your friend, it can wait" Maura smiled.

"Brenda, if Olivia finds out we needed her help and did not call her, she will be even more upset. Trust us" Brenda looked uncertain before looking down at Sharon. They shared a look for a moment, Sharon raising one eyebrow and getting a small smile in return before Brenda looked over at me.

"Oh ok then, but Jane, please apologise on my behalf for bothering her, please" I nodded and fished my cell out of my clutch and scrolled through the address book for the right number, highlighting 'LIV' and hitting call. It rang a few times before Olivia came up.

'_Jane, is everything ok, are you and Maura alright?_'

"Hi Liv, we're both fine, but we've had an incident here and we could really use your help"

"_What's happened, you're ok?_' I could hear a sleepy Alex in the background and Liv's voice tell Alex it was us but we were ok. '_Sorry, go ahead_'

"There was a bombing at the hotel where we're attending a function, a car belonging to a rapper got blown up. It looked like a suicide bombing at first, so we're now ass deep in Feds"

'_Oh shit, that sucks, how can we help?_' I grinned, that was Liv for you, both of them actually.

"The car belonged to a rapper named D-Crypt; he got into one of these stupid rap feuds with a New York rapper named G.B.H. No, I kid you not, G.B.H. Anyway, it looks like it might have been an attempt on him. Can you chase up anything on either this G.B.H. character or his studio, Hard Time Records?"

'_I take it this is rush urgent?_' I nodded, even though she couldn't see me.

"Liv, the hotel was hosting the LAPD Police Benefit Ball; we've got three dead and over 50 wounded, some seriously, a lot of them are cops"

'_Oh god, is it on the news? Alex, turn on the news baby, one of the news stations_. _I got it Jane; I'll head in and see what I can find. Hang on, there's coverage on the news, shit what a mess. There's some spokesperson trying to keep a lid on it_' I looked over at Natalie.

"Attractive blonde in a black evening gown?" Natalie's eyebrows went up.

'_Yeah, stunner actually, who's she?_'

"That's Natalie, our media person; she was here with us when the bomb went off"

'_Isn't she one of the people you told us about out there?_" I looked up to see Brenda walk over to me and hold out her hand for the phone.

"Yep, hang on Liv, my boss wants to speak to you, here you go" Brenda took the phone, flipping her hair out of the way to speak.

"Detective Benson, this is Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson of the LAPD, I'm sorry for any inconvenience our call has caused you…" She paused for a moment. "I appreciate that Detective, I really do. We have a couple of leads, but if we can ask you to look into G.B.H. and Hard Time Records, it will make the job so very much easier" Brenda stood there for a moment, listening to what Olivia was saying. "Anything tying them into explosives use, anything at all" She paused for a second.

"Detective, you have the thanks of the LAPD and my deep personal gratitude. If your boss has any problems with your assistance to us, please ask him to contact me and I will handle any issues this may cause. Thank you so very much Detective, I'll pass you back to Jane, thank you again" I took the phone back.

"Liv, it's me"

'_Love that accent your boss has Jane. Look no problem, I'll head in now. So you want anything on G.B.H. and Hard Time Records?_'

"Yes Liv, we appreciate it"

'_No problem, Alex says to say hi, she's just happy that you're both ok. You are both ok aren't you?_' I looked over at Maura and smiled.

"Yeah, not a scratch thank god, I'll tell you all about it later ok?"

'_Yeah, I'm on my way, I'll call you on this number when I have something_'

'Thanks Liv, love to Alex, Maura will give her a call her later today. Bye" I ended the call and looked up at Maura.

"Liv and Alex both say hi, they're just happy we're ok" Maura smiled, She'd ring Alex and bring her up to speed tomorrow, well today actually. Alex and Olivia were really good friends, we'd started both our relationships the same night and stayed close ever since.

Brenda nodded her thanks and turned to look at Sharon.

"What do you think Sharon?" Sharon nodded.

"Unless we get information from New York to the contrary, I'd lean towards it being something internal, Jefferson was the target, not D-Crypt" Brenda nodded.

"Why?"

"It certainly looks like motive, Jefferson was supplanting the established order of things in this rap artist's posse, which would make some people very anxious" Brenda nodded, then turned to Natalie.

"Your thought's Natalie?" She looked around surprised.

"Me?"

"Why not, you've heard it all, you used to be a journalist and Ana has told me that you could have been a good cop if you had gone in that direction. What are your instincts saying?" She looked startled; flashing a look at Ana for a moment, then spoke.

"I don't think it was an attack on D-Crypt. The explosion would have killed anyone in the car, but it went off when there was only one person in it. The kicker will be when they work out how it was detonated. I'm betting it wasn't a timer, it was deliberately set off at that point"

"Maura, you're the smartest person in the room, what's your theory" She looked up and smiled at Brenda's words.

"Tony Jefferson was the target, definitely not D-Crypt and his entourage" I blinked, Maura didn't normally make guesses, but she was being very definitive, with no proof that I could see. Brenda must have thought the same.

"You're very confident, may I ask why?"

"The decision to make this trip tonight with Mr Jefferson as the driver was only made an hour before they departed. That suggests an irregular schedule, one not conducive to a timed attack. I would also note that whoever set off the explosion did so at a point that they were aware that only Mr Jefferson was inside the vehicle" Maura looked across at me and I gave her an encouraging smile as she continued, laying out her case.

"That indicates that D-Crypt was not the target. If they knew Mr Jefferson would be in there throughout the period it was parked they would have set it off then, the fact they did not but instead waited until they could be sure that he was behind the wheel is indicative of someone not totally familiar with how the security people were working.. That also suggests that whoever did it was in position to see the vehicle when they set the explosion off"

Brenda nodded slowly; looking around us all as she unconsciously laid her hand on Sharon's shoulder. Sharon smiled gently and placed her hand over Brenda's, causing Brenda to look down at their hands together and smile.

"Well ladies, it looks like we all agree, unless Detective Benson turns up anything, it looks like we have someone in D-Crypt's posse with an axe to grind. I'll get Lieutenant Tao and Buzz to review the hotel security camera footage; perhaps we'll see something there"

I nodded, this had come together very fast, but we were going to be here for a while yet. Apparently I wasn't the only one thinking that, as Natalie looked up, an impish smile on her face.

"Y'know Chief, if we handed it over to the Feds and let them investigate this, we could all go home, well eventually" Brenda looked up; I could see the confusion in her eyes.

"For heaven's sake, why would…" She suddenly stopped and looked down at where Sharon must have given her hand a squeeze. I couldn't quite see Sharon's face but I could imagine the look she gave Brenda "Um, well… yes, I can see why that would be attractive option"

"Very attractive actually" It was Ana, her voice totally deadpan as she looked over the two of them there, rather blatantly checking them both out. Sharon couldn't not tease Brenda either, a smile on her lips.

"You'll have to excuse my girlfriend; she's not at her best this late in the evening" Brenda just looked at her, her jaw dropping open, though I wasn't sure if it was the comment or the girlfriend tag. I could see her eyes narrow, then a wicked smile appear. _Game on_.

"I'll have you know Sharon Raydor; I do some of my best work late at night" Sharon just smiled.

"Well honey, you've been very inspired this week I have to admit" I felt my jaw drop open, what the hell? I wasn't the only one either.

"Oh that wasn't my best by any means. I save that for important things" Sharon pouted.

"Oh, so I'm not one of those important things?"

"Not until I saw you in that dress sweetie, right then and there that moved you to the top of the important category" Sharon's voice was full of mirth.

"That was the whole idea honey" They stood there for a moment, lost in a look, before Maura spoke, teasing in her voice.

"I'd suggest that we could call it a night and reconvene after a good night's sleep, but I doubt any of us would be getting much tonight, sleep that is" Brenda and Sharon came back to us from wherever they'd been and looked at us as laughter filled the room at her words. It took a second for Maura's comment to register with Sharon before she blushed.

"You're probably right, about the sleep I mean" Brenda nodded.

"Let's wrap this case up tonight so we can all go home" I knew I really shouldn't ask, but I was curious.

"I thought tonight was likely to be the first night…" They looked at me, before exchanging a look.

"Oh, we hadn't done anything, at least not yet" Brenda smiled down at Sharon, who smiled in return before looking at us.

"We've been working on a case together, working back late most of this week" Ana nodded.

"Yeah, I got briefed in on that one yesterday" I nodded.

"Is it something we can help with?" They exchanged another look before Sharon spoke.

"Possibly, it's a messy one, which is why we've been doing it after hours" I sighed.

"Messy cases is something we've had plenty of experience with, let us know if we can help ok?" They both nodded. Natalie looked over from where she was standing behind Ana, her hands gently massaging Ana's neck.

I could handle a little of that from Maura right now to be honest. My feet were killing me and I just wanted to cuddle up with her, mind you, as she'd suggested, we'd get no sleep then. Natalie asked the question I'd been thinking.

"So, am I right that tonight was going to be the night?" Brenda and Sharon both coloured slightly and looked at each other, before nodding. That was all it took to get Nat off and running.

"Right, well it's too late for anything tonight, as you said we've a case to wrap up here, but we're going to do this the right way, we're all going out next Saturday night, something casual and fun" Maura nodded.

"That sounds like an excellent idea, I'm sure we can find something more than appropriate" Ana chimed in as well.

"Don't fight it guys, when Maura and Blondie here set their minds to it, it's best to go with the flow" I chuckled, partly at Ana's words and partly at Sharon and Brenda's dubious expressions.

"Everything those two have done since we moved here's been pretty amazing, between them I'm sure they'll come up with something fantastic"

Brenda and Sharon exchanged another of those looks. I was pretty familiar with the type, I'd seen similar plenty of times, between Nat and Ana and Maura and I. Natalie was right, they'd be a spectacular couple together.

"Sharon finally spoke, her eyes on Brenda's.

"That would be lovely; Brenda's told me how much you helped her, so we'd love to party with you" Natalie nodded.

"Then let's get this wrapped up so we can move onto more important things" Brenda laughed.

"You make it sound so easy Nat" She smiled in return.

"Hey, between the six of us we're already miles ahead of everyone outside; they're still thinking it's a terrorist bombing. How hard can it be?" That comment earned her a synchronised groan from Brenda and Sharon.

"Natalie, don't ever say that, don't tempt fate" I had to laugh at Brenda's comment.

"Hey, after everything we've done in the past few months, a straightforward murder investigation's going to be a piece of cake"

Before anyone could respond, there was a knock on the door again. Gabriel opened it in response to Brenda's call.

"Chef, I've got Mr Walters here to see you"

"Ah Sergeant Gabriel, excellent, I have a few jobs for you and the squad"

"Oh?" Brenda smiled wickedly.

"David, it'll be a piece of cake"


	76. Chapter 76

The premise for both the preceding chapter and this one were based on conversations I have had with a mate of mine, a former Australian Special Air Services soldier who ended up providing personal security services to celebrities in the United States. I couldn't make up some of the things he's told me.

**Who guards the guardian's part 3**

Sharon's viewpoint

Carl Walters turned out to be a very fit, deeply tanned man in his early fifties. With his short cropped salt and pepper hair and neatly trimmed moustache he looked like the army colonel from central casting.

Brenda handled the introductions.

"Mr Walters, I appreciate you making the time to chat to us, I'm Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson. These are my LAPD colleagues, Commander Raydor, Detective Rizzoli, Doctor Isles and Ms Dearing, plus Special Agent Romanov of the FBI, please have a seat"

As he sat I could see him sizing us up, we obviously didn't fit his notions of LAPD officers, mind you I couldn't really blame him.

"Mr Walters, I'm sorry for the loss of one of your employees, Tony Jefferson. We're trying to get some idea of the background to the threats made against D-Crypt and your company's response; anything which may help us determine who was responsible for his death." He looked at Brenda for a moment and then nodded.

"Chief Johnson, Talisman Personal Services was engaged by Street Cred Studios to protect one of their label's rising stars, the rapper known as D-Crypt. There had been threats made against his life and given the prevalence for such issues to end poorly, we were hired to keep him safe" I almost snorted at his choice of words, '_prevalence to end poorly_' indeed.

"I understand that your company was providing round the clock protection to D-Crypt, an expensive task" He nodded once.

"Yes, but the studio thought there was a serious threat" He made a gesture with his hand. "Obviously they were right" Brenda nodded.

"Indeed. Could you please give us an idea of the nature of the protection you were providing D-Crypt?"

"As you're aware, we had three three-man teams providing close personal protection, which means we were escorting him everywhere, we had his home wired with intrusion alarms, we provided a secure vehicle for the team to travel with the principal and his associates and we stood post on him wherever he went"

"The vehicle that exploded outside was one of yours?" He nodded.

"Yes, a lot of celebrity's demand that they travel in appropriate style, no matter the threat, so that was one of our vehicles, appropriately modified"

"Modified?" It was Jane. "In what way?"

"Heavily armoured, run flat tires, under body protection, cypher locks, encrypted radio communications, you name it. Same deal with the chase car" Jane frowned.

"Chase car?" Walter's nodded.

"Two of the team travel in the limo, the third in a nondescript vehicle which follows them closely during the trip in case of an incident. It then proceeds ahead to allow the driver to recce the site before the limo arrives" Brenda smiled, obviously continuing the good cop persona.

"That sounds very comprehensive Mr Walters; do you get much call for this level of services for celebrities?"

"More than you might think, a lot of high profile people have justifiable concerns for their safety. Our job is to keep them safe, it's an expensive job to do it right, but we have a reputation for not cutting corners. Very few of our clients begrudge the money, especially when it turns out they need us" Brenda smiled, turning on the innocent charm. I'd watched enough of her interrogations before but I still liked watching her in action.

"I'm sorry to confess I hadn't heard of your company before tonight"

"We try and keep it low key. That's the way most of our clients prefer it, they don't want it getting out that they have serious security concerns. Our job isn't to run around with drawn weapons, it's to ensure the safety of the principal; if we see a threat, we try and get them out of there first and detain the threat second, if we can we hand the threat over to your people to deal with" Brenda nodded.

"I understand that there may have been some tensions between D-Crypt's associates and some of your team"

There were some, but that's not unusual"

"Not unusual?" It was Ana. "In what way?"

"Look, how much do you know about what we do?" He looked around us all, getting no answer he ploughed on.

"We get called in because there's a possible threat to a person's life, a serious threat. We're a part of their lives for hours, days and sometimes weeks at a time. We stand between them and the rest of the world. Some of them hate us, some of them ignore us and some of them love us" He sat back in the chair and stretched his arms out before he leaned forward and continued.

"Many of these celebs think their fans love them and often they're right. Unfortunately some of these fans love them so much they can't stand to see them with someone else. They have an unhealthy fixation on a celeb to the point they resent them being with anyone else, family, co-stars, partners, husbands or wives, anyone"

"Sometimes these stalkers have a delusional belief that they're their target's one true love, they want to free them to love the stalker. They don't handle it well when they're rejected, some believe their life has no meaning and that if they can't have the celebrity no one else can either" We nodded as I recalled John Lennon's death.

"Lots of the people we look after are pretty fucked up as well; they live a life pretty much divorced from reality. Some of these people barely touch base with what you and I call normal"

"In what way" The question came from Maura.

"Look, not long after I started out in this industry I worked close protection for this singer; she'd been famous since she was a teenager, a full card-carrying member of planet celebrity. There was a threat to her safety from her ex and also from an obsessed fan, so we were called in. I worked with her for six weeks. In that time I got a good look at her life, she didn't have a real friend to her name. Everyone around her was an employee, they weren't her friends, as far as they were concerned she was a meal ticket, she was basically alone surrounded by sycophants"

I thought about that, it seemed strange, a life with no friends. I looked around, seeing the five women in the room, wondering what my life would be without them, especially Brenda. My mind shied away from that concept as soon as I thought of it. I noticed a few surreptitious glances being cast around the room, I guess I wasn't the only one having issues with that thought.

Jane was obviously having some problems coming to grips with that level of isolation.

"What about family, people she grew up with, surely she can't have no one?"

"She's a one woman music machine, she supports an industry, there's around 60 odd people surrounding her who work full time for her; managers, personal assistants, secretary, publicists, dietician, stylist, hairdresser, personal shopper, maids, nanny's for her kids, drivers, lawyers, photographer, web people, producers, nutritionist, beautician, you name it" He shook his head at the list.

"As for her family, they leech off her as much as anyone. It's been like this since she was a teenager, as the industry around her pushes away anyone who isn't important to her career. It's one of the reasons that celebrities come across so weird. They're surrounded by people who depend on them for a job, everyone competes to tell her what they think she want to hear, not what's actually happening"

I could see both Jane and Natalie were having issues with a family treating a daughter as a meal ticket, I remembered they both came from close families, so their issues were understandable, god knows I felt the same way, I couldn't contemplate that with Lucas and Heather.

"And then into that little world comes yours truly and the rest of our team, pretty normal people, well, kinda. We fit into that world about as well as me in one of your evening dresses" I had to smile at that image, I found myself liking Carl Walters, he seemed pretty down to earth, grounded.

"So little miss superstar, used to being told she's incredibly talented, wonderful, sensational, and brilliant, you name it, suddenly gets put into contact with people who don't kiss her ass all day. We might be the first person to tell them no in years" Natalie leaned forward.

"I can imagine that doesn't go down to well" Walters made a so-so motion with his hand.

"Some hate it, throw tantrums and push boundaries to see what they can get away with. Others try and ignore us and just keep on doing whatever it is while we do our best to protect them. Some, well we might be the first people to give them an honest opinion or a straight answer in years"

"Could you explain that statement please Mr Walters" It was Maura.

"Sure. That singer for example, she was supposed to sing at a major function, lots of important people there. She was all set to walk out in a costume basically made up of scraps of see through material and not much else. Everyone was telling her how good she looked, how she'd be guaranteed magazine cover shots and plenty of press. Trouble was it made her look like a cheap tart, she'd be flashing anyone who looked and it'd be front cover material all right" He shook his head at the memory.

"Well Brian, another security specialist and I have the detail when she walks out of the dressing room in her house, trailed by the stylist, shopper, publicist and a few other hangers on. We take one look at her and exchange a look, we're both thinking the same thing, but we're not going to volunteer the info, that's not our job" He rubbed his hands together slowly as he looked around.

"Fortunately, she looks at us and asks us what we think. Well, we look at one another and we kinda hesitate" He shrugged.

"We're there to protect them from threats, not bad fashion advice. She notices that we're not exactly doing cartwheels about it and asks us for a straight answer. She tells us that it's supposed to get her noticed and on the covers of magazines We tell her we don't think it's appropriate for a person of her stature in the industry or for someone of her looks and talent" He laughed at the memory.

"As you can imagine, that didn't go down to well with the stylist who starts getting pissy but she gets shut down real quick. We get asked to explain why and we tell her. I told her I wouldn't let my daughter out wearing what she's wearing, it makes her look cheap and she's better than that. Brian tells her that he's seen hookers in some of the worst dives around the world wearing nicer clothes, that she should look the star she is, not some wanna be porn star"

"Anyway, we get dragged into her dressing room and get asked for our opinion on what she should wear, in the end she wears a really classy metallic ball gown, makes her look like a million dollars, like a real star. As you can imagine, the stylist is stewing and we're no longer on her Christmas card list, but the singer, well she ended taking a shine to us both and we still stay in contact" He shrugged again.

"So you can see we don't fit into the natural order of things. We're outsiders suddenly in close contact with people who don't have a lot of contact with the real world, what with living on planet celebrity" Ana nodded, then followed up on her initial question.

"So you said that tensions were not unusual, were there issues between members of D-Crypts entourage and your team?"

"Yes there was, however as I explained this is nothing unusual"

"What sort of issues?"

"I understand that several members of the principal's entourage had issues with Tony Jefferson, they didn't like him, they saw his rapport with the principal as something of a problem" Brenda smiled and inserted herself back into the conversation.

"Was there a request to remove him from the team?" Walters nodded.

"Yes, the principal's manager Paul Weatherly asked that Tony be replaced" I frowned at that, trying to understand his statement. Brenda had the same issue.

"Why then was he still on the team tonight?""

Normally, if the situation gets to the point of a formal request I would have pulled Tony out, however the principal got wind of the request and made it very clear that was not what he wanted" I nodded and got him to clarify the details for the recording..

"So D-Crypt asked for Tony to be kept on the protection team?"

"That's correct. I suspect that he may have had ideas of hiring Tony to provide direct personal security" Jane jumped in.

"Is that common?"

"It happens more often than you might think. I try and hire the best people, I pay them well, but if a celebrity is prepared to pay my people enough to make it worth their while, then I have no issue with that" Brenda leaned forward at that comment.

"For heaven's sake, why not?"

"Well, it's a good advertisement for my business; it helps word get around about the quality of my people" He shrugged.

"Besides, more often than not they end up coming back to work for me, sometimes they get tired of the nursemaid duties and all the stupidity that goes along with it, sometimes the celebrity gets new management and they end up letting the person go and sometimes the situation changes and the relationship ends" He spread his hands.

"I'm happy to let them go and happy to have them back. We're all professionals and we behave like it" Brenda smiled again.

"So it had been agreed that Tony would remain on the team?"

"Yes, I don't want to break up a team in the middle of a job, it just means a new person has to play catch up to pick up the principal's routine" Jane and Maura exchanged a quick look, before Jane nodded her head slightly in a '_go ahead_' gesture and Maura spoke up.

"Mr Walters, could you please confirm when you received the initial request to remove Mr Jefferson from the team? Also when you agreed with D-Crypt's request for him to remain on the team?"

"Not exactly, probably two weeks ago, then the countermanding order came about two days later, after the principal became aware of the request" I shared a quiet look with Brenda; it was obvious we both had the same idea in mind. She smiled at me and made an 'after you' motion with her hand, I smiled and returned her gesture with a nod and turned to Carl Walters.

""So to summarise, Tony Jefferson was having issues with several members of D-Crypts entourage, one of whom asked him to be removed from the protective detail, however D-Crypt rescinded that request shortly thereafter" He nodded slowly, obviously he had put it together from our line of questioning..

"So you suspect the bombing had nothing to do with the feud with the New York rapper, you think it was personal, one of D-Crypt's people did this?" Brenda smiled at him.

"We are investigating several possible lines of enquiry Mr Walters; this is only one of them. We would however appreciate you keeping this to yourself until we can conclude our investigation" I could tell Walters wasn't too happy with the way our investigation was leading.

"Tony was in my unit in Afghanistan, we made it out of there together in one piece, now he's dead on a Los Angeles Street" He stared at Brenda, pouring his personality into the gaze he turned on Brenda.

"I'm about to go and try and explain this to his wife. Tell me you'll catch whoever did this and put them on death row"

I'd heard of command presence, I was seeing it right here. To her credit Brenda didn't flinch, meeting his gaze levelly.

"Mr Walters, that's what I want, that's what we all want" Walter's stood and looked around at us all, meeting each of our gazes in turn, before he turned back to Brenda.

"Then with your permission, I'll be leaving, I have a widow to notify and a funeral to plan"

"Please convey our deepest sympathies to Mrs Jefferson" Walters reached into his jacket and pulled out a business card, before handing it to Brenda.

"I don't want your sympathies Chief Johnson, I want you to call me and tell me you have Tony's killer in custody or even better, dead"

"You have my word; I'll call you when we have something"

With that Carl Walters walked out the door, leaving us looking at one another. Finally Jane spoke.

Y'know, that's an angry man. I don't think I'd want a man like that, commanding a bunch of Special Forces guys, mad at me anytime soon" I nodded, noticing I wasn't the only one. Finally Brenda spoke.

"While we wait to hear from Detective Benson, let's see if the surveillance tapes show anything. Most importantly though, I need a coffee" I caught her eye and smiled, getting a tired smile in return. I reached out a hand and laid it on her arm, relishing the touch, if only for a moment.

"Probably a good idea, it's going to be a long night"


	77. Chapter 77

**Who guards the guardians Part 4**

Natalie's viewpoint

An hour later we were standing around in the hotel's security office, drinking coffee and watching the surveillance tapes of the lobby. Tao stopped the tape and tapped the screen.

"There, this guy walks out, holding a mobile phone, but he's not looking at it, he's looking out at the street" Brenda looked up at Ana and I.

"Is that Paul Weatherly?" It was, D-Crypt's manager, the guy who'd tried to get us to party with them earlier in the evening. We both nodded.

As Brenda turned her attention back to the footage, Michael started the tape again, in slow motion.

"As you can see, he sees something, pushes a button on the phone and steps back out of the foyer into the corridor" There was a flash of light and a slow motion wave of shattered glass visible on the tape. "Then he turns and walks away" Brenda leaned in close to the screen.

"Well, that's enough to talk to him" Michael just grinned wider.

"Ah Chief, but it gets better" Brenda looked at him, raising one eyebrow. He got to the point.

"Ah sorry Chief, right. As you can see here, on this camera, you can see him walk back towards the restaurant, before turning into the men's room just outside the restaurant" Michael speeded the camera up, showing people streaming out of restaurant past the toilets, before slowing it again as Paul appeared again.

"He was in there around 90 seconds, before walking back into the restaurant" Sharon stood up from where she'd been leaning over watching the screen and looked at Brenda.

"Interesting, he showed no interest in what happened outside. Seems a bit strange don't you think, to not want to see what was going on?" Brenda smiled a cold smile, still looking at the screen, not her usual warm and lovely smile at all.

"Very strange indeed; Lieutenant Tao, can we get a team to search that men's room please?" His smile grew wider.

"Already on it Chief, Sanchez and Gabriel are on it now with a couple of uniforms" Brenda's smile turned genuine.

"You bucking for a raise Lieutenant? Sorry to tell y'all it's a bit late, I've already handed in your fitness report" Michael grinned.

"Never too early to start on the next one Chief" Brenda just gave him one of her saucy grins before leaning in.

"Good work there Lieutenant" She turned to Andy.

"Lieutenant Flynn, are our guests still here" He grimaced.

"Sure are Chief, they're not happy about it either" Brenda gave him a grin.

"Their happiness is no concern of mine Lieutenant" Andy just grinned in return.

Just then Jane's phone went off, causing all of us to turn to her. The ringtone was the theme from the old TV show 'Car 54, Where are you'. Jane loved personalised ringtones; I made a mental note to find out what mine was.

"Hi Liv, what you got" She listened for a moment. "OK, I'll pass you across to the Chief"

"Detective Benson, Chief Johnson here" Brenda listened for about two minutes, broken by the occasional 'uh huh' and 'ok'. Finally she spoke.

"Detective, thank you so very much for all your help; I truly appreciate you doing this for us, especially at whatever god forsaken time it is over there. If there are any issues arising from this, please get your boss to ring me direct, Detective Rizzoli can text you the numbers" She raised an eyebrow at Jane and got an answering nod.

"Once again, I'd like to thank you, your information's been a very big help and we really appreciate the speed with which you got back to us. Please also apologise to…Alex is it?" She paused. "Oh good, please apologise on our behalf to Alex for dragging you outta bed so late as well" Another pause. "I'll pass you back to Jane, thank you again Detective. Bye"

Brenda passed the cell back to Jane, who stepped away to finish up the conversation with her friend. Meanwhile Brenda brought us up to speed.

"It appears it's not likely to have been anyone from Hard Time Records, they're being pretty thoroughly investigated by the IRS for tax fraud, so I doubt they have any energy to spend on some pretty meaningless feud clear across the far side of the country" Ana nodded.

"What about G.B.H.?"

"Apparently he's in Europe right now, doing some big urban music festival in the Netherlands, so we can probably dismiss him directly. In addition there is no history whatsoever of any explosives use by anyone even remotely connected to Hard Time Records, so it looks like we can probably discount them unless any other information comes up" There were nods all around the room.

Jane walked back into the conversation, having ended the call with Olivia.

"What now Chief?" Brenda ran her hands through her hair, pushing it away from her face. She looked tired, we all did. It was well after 2 in the morning and we were all getting pretty ragged.

"Now we wait on whatever Sergeant Gabriel and Detective Sanchez turn up. In the meantime, I need another coffee" I looked into the dregs of my current cup and pulled a face.

At least I wasn't fronting the media anymore; the FBI had taken over that role. They were still talking in vague terms about pursuing investigations and possible terrorist implications, which was going to make them look silly if we closed this case and there were no terrorist implications.

I wandered over to Ana and pulled her to one side.

"Hey Tsarina, you ok?" Ana looked as tired as the rest of us.

"Yeah, be glad when this is over" I reached out and rubbed her arm, looking for the contact, before she caught my hand and we laced our fingers. She looked at my face, saw something was bothering me and drew me further to one side.

"Hey, what's up?" I shook my head, I never could keep anything from her; she could read me like a book.

"Just worried that if this turns out to be a murder investigation, like it appears, then the FBI is going to look silly; that means you might be in trouble for not keeping them in the loop" Ana paused for a moment, looking back at Brenda.

"Yeah, I'd thought of that, Brenda's got some past history of issues with the Bureau, so playing nice with them isn't her first priority. You're right though, I'll go talk to her" I squeezed her fingers.

"**We'll** go talk to her you mean" I got a lovely smile in return, as she pulled me in close to whisper in my ear.

"I think that's reason two million, eight hundred and twenty two thousand, four hundred and ninety six why I love you" I couldn't help it, I had to laugh.

"You think?" I got her cheeky grin in return.

"Well, I haven't been keeping exact score…"

We grabbed Brenda and Sharon, who was staying close and made our pitch to Brenda. She was reluctant at first, but Sharon convinced her that it wouldn't mess up our case, the Feds could investigate the terrorism angle and we could investigate it as a murder, we'd simply investigate in parallel. It took a bit of convincing, but she eventually agreed and Ana went off to grab Director Martinez and Chief Pope.

A few minutes later Brenda was laying out our case to them both. Pope was a bit miffed that Brenda had managed to back alley the information out of the NYPD, but agreed that we did have the semblance of a case.

Martinez was less than happy, he'd rolled out the full team to investigate the bombing, his techs were already combing over the remains of the Hummer under a battery of portable day maker flood lights. To be told it likely wasn't a terrorist attack did make it look like an overreaction but he did agree that it appeared we may have a case.

In the end they agreed we'd continue to investigate it as a murder and they would treat it as a potential terrorist attack unless proven otherwise.

As we were finishing up I saw Gabriel stride into the room, a baggie in his hand and a grin on his face.

What they'd found was a cell phone that had been hidden in the cistern of a toilet.

Ten minutes later Michael had it connected to a laptop in the command trailer and had a record of calls.

"It's a disposable prepaid Chief. One number programmed in, called twice. Friday at 2.23 in the afternoon, the second at 11.06 last night" We all shared a look, 11.06 was the time of the explosion.

Thirty seconds later, Brenda had Director Martinez briefed and the FBI forensic team were combing the wreck for any trace of a cell phone. It didn't take long.

According to the FBI's chief forensics tech, a balding guy with an air of the mad scientist about him, two shards of plastic and a piece of wire were enough to confirm that a cell phone had been part of the bomb.

"The plastic's quite thin and cheap, and the wiring's low grade, you're looking at a cheap disposable phone" Brenda pursed her lips.

'You're sure?" He nodded.

"No signs of the sort of glass you'd get from a decent smart phone, that'd be more likely to survive than the plastic. No glass suggests something cheap and disposable" We knew from a quick check with Bill and Carl that Tony Jefferson owned a top of the line smartphone, so the remains weren't from his. Sharon handed over the cell recovered from the men's room, still in its evidence baggie.

"Yeah, something like that, cheap ass phone, probably came out of the same factory in China" Brenda nodded.

"If we know the number it called, is there any way to work out where the phone that received it is?"

The FBI guy and Michael shared a look before Michael spoke.

"Not really Chief; you see, the phone needs to be active in the call for about 10 seconds for the phone system to run down the location" The FBI guy smiled a bit, he knew something.

"Not totally true, we may not get exact GPS coordinates, especially in a non-smart phone, but we should get a hit on the closest cell phone tower" Michael looked confused.

"I didn't know that was possible?" The FBI guy tapped the side of his nose theatrically.

"If we didn't have a few dark secrets, we wouldn't be the government, now would we"

A couple of minutes later we had the closest cell towers, the 11.06 call had been made and received by the same cell tower, ironically located on the roof of the hotel. The other call was made through a cell tower out near D-Crypts home. Brenda looked around.

"I think that's enough to get Mr Weatherly in for a chat, don't you?" There were nods all round.

Five minutes later we were back in the same room that we'd interviewed Bill Harakaia and Carl Walters as Paul Weatherly was ushered in. Brenda had given us all roles to play in tonight's theatre as required, all to put Weatherly under pressure.

Brenda smiled as Julio led him to the lone seat in the middle of the room, as we all stood around him some distance back from his chair. The rest of the Major Crimes team were leaning up against the walls, watching over the room and adding to the atmosphere. Sharon's iPhone was lying on a table next to him, recording everything.

"Good evening Mr Weatherly, I'm Chief Johnson with the LAPD" He peered at her for a moment before nodding.

"Hi, you obviously know who I am. Why am I here?" Brenda turned on the charm again.

"We're investigating the bombing of your car outside. Trying to find who was responsible" He frowned at her.

"Obviously it must have been that cocksucker G.B.H., Why aren't you arresting him for this, he's the one who made threats against D-Crypt" Brenda smiled.

"We have our associates with the NYPD conducting investigations as we speak. We just wanted to talk to you, you're D-Crypts manager and you apparently tried to end the feud with G.B.H. and Hard Time Records. Who better to talk to?" Weatherly looked around the room, taking us in. I wonder if he was going to underestimate us, given his track record with women there was a good chance of it. His sense of self-importance kicked in.

"Well yeah, I tried to cool it down, didn't want it to get outa hand y'know. Tried to, but they didn't wanna know. It's all their fault, not ours" Sharon walked a little closer, attracting his attention.

"I was under the impression that it started when your friend D-Crypt assaulted G.B.H.s girlfriend" Weatherly shook his head.

"It wasn't assault, she wanted it" Sharon crossed her arms.

"Was that before or after you pushed drugs and alcohol onto her?" He looked up at her, trying to play it cool.

"I don't know what you mean" Sharon arced an eyebrow.

"That is your job though, isn't it? Procure the girls for D-Crypt and the posse?" As he went to speak Brenda spoke up.

"Please Commander, Mr Weatherly is here to help us, let's give him the benefit of the doubt shall we" Sharon turned away, that way Weatherly couldn't see the wink she threw Brenda and I. Brenda looked across at Sharon for a moment.

"I'm not interested in what may or may not have happened to start this; my investigation is entirely concerned with tonight's bombing" She looked back to Weatherly. "Incidentally, do you have a cell phone?" He looked confused.

"Yeah, course I do"

"May I see it please?" He looked confused, before shrugging and pulling a high end smart phone out of his pocket and holding it up for Brenda to examine. "Is that your only phone?"

"Yeah, what's that got to do with things?"

"I expect you have a business card, may I have one please?"

"What?" Jane walked up and held her hand out.

"A business card Mr Weatherly, it's either the card or I confiscate your phone as evidence" Weatherly's face was a mix of anger and confusion, with something that might have been fear mixed in.

"Evidence? What the fuck?" Jane just snapped her fingers and held out her hand.

"The card or your phone, your choice"

"Fine" With poor grace he handed Jane a business card and she walked towards Michael who stepped forward, collecting the card from her and leaving the room, heading to check the call register for that number. Brenda returned her attention to our suspect, who looked confused.

"Mr Weatherly, the investigation into tonight's incident is now a joint investigation of the Federal Government and the LAPD. The Feds are treating this as a terrorist bombing and intend to charge the person responsible under terrorism statutes. That means life in a federal prison" She cocked her head as she regarded him.

"My investigation is looking at it as a non-terrorist crime. If I'm right it was a standard criminal case, not a terrorism matter. That means it's handled here under California law, no federal involvement"

"Of course it wasn't terrorism, there were been threats made against D-Crypt, that's why we had security. That's why one of them died, rather than us"

"Ah yes, the security personnel; I understand there were some tensions between them and some of your people, including you"

"Some of them weren't acting in an appropriate manner for hired help, we made a complaint"

"More than a complaint, you specifically asked for one member of the security team to be replaced, Tony Jefferson, the man who died tonight"

"I told you, he wasn't working out, upsetting people, so I asked for him to be replaced by someone less annoying"

"In what way was Tony Jefferson acting inappropriately Mr Weatherly?"

"I told you, upsetting people, getting all chummy with the boss, I could see he was trying to work his way into the posse, kissing ass to try and get a job with us. That's not what he was hired for, he was a meat head, hired to do a job and nothing more"

"So you felt he had to go?"

"Yeah, my job's to look after D-Crypt's interests and I didn't feel this Jefferson guy was particularly professional, his job was to catch a bullet, not try and be the boss's best bud"

"Funny, your employer didn't agree, when he heard about it he insisted that Tony Jefferson stay on the detail"

"Yeah well, apparently Jefferson went and bitched to him about being replaced and D-Crypt, well he's a sucker for a sob story, so he asked for him to stay"

The door opened and Michael walked through, taking his place against the wall next to Andy. At Brenda's look he shook his head.

"No calls or texts out for 38 minutes prior to the explosion or 21 minutes after"

"Thank you Lieutenant" She turned back to Weatherly, who was sitting uncomfortably. "No calls eh Mr Weatherly? What then were you doing then making a call at 11.06 last night? You obviously weren't using that phone"

"I don't know what you mean, I didn't make any calls, like he said" Brenda just shook her head sadly.

"Oh Mr Weatherly, please don't lie to me, we have security camera footage of you making a call at the time of the explosion. In fact, you looked out, saw the car turn into the driveway and made the call, before ducking out of line of sight of the explosion. Looks like you knew exactly what to expect"

Brenda gestured to where David leaned against the wall, staring at Weatherly with disdain on his face.

"As for the phone, you'll note the object Sergeant Gabriel has in his hand" David stood straighter and held up the disposable cell in its baggie.

"We have here a cell phone recovered from a toilet just outside the restaurant you'd been having dinner in. We've already confirmed it was used to set off the explosion, ringing another phone just like it to trigger the bomb"

"We also have you on tape walking in there right after the explosion, before leaving and returning to the restaurant" Weatherly looked at her for a moment, uncertainty on his face, before it hardened. He'd obviously decided to tough it out.

"That proves nothing. It means nothing" Brenda smiled.

"Perhaps it doesn't, not on its own, however I'd like to introduce you to Doctor Isles; the LAPDs Medical Examiner" Brenda gestured to where Maura stood, her arms crossed. She nodded politely at Weatherly. "The good Doctor handles the forensic evidence of cases, which includes fingerprints. Tell me Doctor Isles, can we recover fingerprints from the phone?" Maura, prepped by Brenda, nodded.

"There is a high probability we can. The phone was not immersed for too long and fresh water is less destructive to fingerprint impression than salt. I would suggest there is a very strong likelihood of recovering a set of usable prints" Brenda smiled.

"Thank you Doctor. We'll be getting a set of prints off you Mr Weatherly, just to compare against those we recover from the cell" Weatherly was looking a little stunned.

"In case you're wondering, the FBI recovered pieces of another mobile phone from the wreckage and will be checking them for fingerprints, as well as running down when and where it was sold" Brenda smiled pleasantly at him.

"Early tomorrow morning, once we get a court order signed, we'll be running down your financial records, looking for any interesting purchasing history. Just in case we find any links to purchases like mobile phones, fertiliser or diesel"

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about"

"Mr Weatherly, we're investigating a murder, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and people from a whole host of other Federal agencies with an alphabet soup of acronyms are out there treating this case as a terrorist bombing. Do you have any idea of how people convicted of terrorist offences get treated? No?"

I could tell Brenda was pushing hard, very hard. I could understand why though, to this point we didn't have a shred of evidence that could stand up in court, nothing concrete, it was all circumstantial, the sort of thing a defence lawyer could get tossed from court in a couple of minutes. Brenda needed Weatherly worried and uncertain.

"The Federal Government will want to prosecute the people responsible for this bombing to the full extent of the law. Special Agent Romanov here is from the FBI. Agent Romanov, could you please explain exactly what that would mean" Ana nodded and looked down at Weatherly.

"Sure thing Chief. It means life in a federal prison. Not the half-assed life sentence the state penal systems hand out, y'know 15, 20 or 25 years, it means stay there until you die" Ana frowned. "Given it's a terrorist attack I expect that the person responsible will end up in a six foot by ten foot cell in Guantanamo Bay for the rest of their life. They can spend their life sharing a prison with the worst of the 9/11 and Al Qaida terrorists. Never to be released" Weatherly was staring at Ana as she continued painting a pretty horrible picture.

"Life inside consists of two one hour exercise periods a day, the other 22 in the cell, in solitary" She shrugged. "That is unless the decision is execution. I believe that as Guantanamo's a military run prison the preferred form of execution is a firing squad. Tie the condemned to a pole and a firing squad of ten soldiers lined up in two rows of five and on an order, fire. At close range all ten will hit, so it's usually quick"

I could see the blood draining from Weatherly's face as he stared at the consequences of his actions. Brenda smiled down at him.

"Mind you, that's only an option if the person responsible is convicted by the federal government under terrorism charges. If I convict them under civil statutes it's completely different, no Guantanamo Bay, no life in solitary, no firing squad" Weatherly shook his head.

"I think I want a lawyer" Brenda looked sad.

"Are you quite sure about that Mr Weatherly?" Sharon stepped back into the exchange.

"Chief Johnson, if Mr Weatherly wishes to speak to a lawyer then we can no longer talk to him without a lawyer present, you know the rules as well as I do" A flash of irritation crossed Brenda's face before she sighed, a trifle theatrically.

"Damn it Commander; that means we have to hand him over to the Feds. None of us want that" Sharon ran her hand through her hair.

"I understand Chief, but that's the rules, we don't make them, we just enforce them"

"I s'pose you're right. Sorry Mr Weatherly, until a lawyer gets here, we can't talk to you anymore, so I have to hand you over to the Feds" Brenda turned her head to look at Ana. "Agent Romanov, would you let Director Martinez know that it's out of my hands and Mr Weatherly's now his to prosecute" Ana nodded and turned to walk to the door.

"Wait" Brenda turned.

"I beg your pardon Mr Weatherly"

"I want to talk to you, not them"

"I'm sorry Mr Weatherly, but as my colleague, Commander Raydor here pointed out, I can't talk to you until a lawyer gets here, and that means it becomes the Feds case, not mine"

"I don't want the Feds involved, I want to talk to you" Brenda gave him a sad smile.

"Sorry Paul, no can do, them's the rules" Sharon spoke up.

"Chief, there is one possibility here" Brenda turned.

"There is? What's that Commander?"

"If Mr Weatherly waives his rights to counsel right now, you can talk to him. He can always change his mind and call for legal counsel later if he chooses" Ana spoke up from where she was standing at the door.

"Chief, can't we just hand him over, it's late. I don't know about you but I'd just as soon go home" That was my cue.

"I don't think that's the correct attitude Special Agent. It may be late, but Mr Weatherly deserves a fair trial. If we hand him over to the Feds he'll hardly get that" I saw Ana's eyes narrow, oh she'd make me pay for that comment later, I could tell.

"Whatever" It was Jane. "It's after three in the morning, can't we hand him over to the Feds, they can rendition his ass to Guantanamo and we can wrap up and go home" Brenda looked at Weatherly.

"Not feeling the love here tonight people" She looked round the room. "All those in favour of handing Mr Weatherly over to the Federal authorities and going home, raise your hand.

"All the boys except Buzz raised their hand, as did Sharon, Jane and Ana.

"Sorry Mr Weatherly, looks like I'm outvoted"

"No!" Weatherly shot to his feet. "You can't just vote to send me to Guantanamo, this isn't Survivor, I have rights" Brenda took a step back.

"Of course you do, including the right to counsel, which you've invoked, so I can't help you anymore, you've tied my hands" She shrugged.

"Mr Weatherly…Paul, sit down" He returned to his seat. "It's late, my team wants to go home, I can't say I blame them; my pillow is calling me as well. Either you waive your right to counsel and we talk right now or Agent Romanov calls in Director Martinez and you get a quick trip to Federal custody, your choice"

Weatherly looked around the room, seeing no sympathy from most of the people there, before finally looking at Buzz, Maura, me and then Brenda, obviously the people he thought were trying to help. Brenda stared at him.

"Well?" The silence dragged out for about 15 seconds, although it felt longer to me and no doubt felt like an eternity to Weatherly, before he caved.

"Ok, I waive my right, is that what you want?" Sharon crossed her arms and glared down at him. I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that expression.

"The wording is I revoke my right to counsel"

"Uh, ok, I revoke my right to counsel" Brenda stared down at him.

"Mr Weatherly, tell me exactly what you did tonight"

""Um, I… er. I didn't…" Brenda sighed.

"Start with when and where you planted the bomb" Weatherly looked like he was rethinking what he was saying. Brenda's mouth twisted with annoyance.

"Well?"

"What do I get if I cooperate?"

"Mr Weatherly, here's the deal. You tell me everything starting right now and I prosecute you under the California criminal statutes. That means no Federal terrorism trial, no Guantanamo Bay, no firing squad" Weatherly chewed his lip, obviously thinking it over, which was what Brenda didn't want happening. She needed him rattled and talking, not thinking.

"Refuse to tell me what the hell you did and I walk out of here, hand you over to the Feds and wash my hands of you. As you can see, most of the people in this room seem to think I should turn you over to them so we can all go home. The longer you hold out on me the better that deal sounds"

Weatherly stared at Brenda for a good 20 seconds, before Brenda decided to turn the screws. She threw her hands up.

"Fine, thank you for wasting my time, enjoy Guantanamo Bay Mr Weatherly, you'll be there till you die, however way that comes, old age or firing squad" She turned and walked to the door, calling for the squad "C'mon people, we're out of here. Agent Romanov, he's all yours with my blessing" Brenda reached the door and grabbed for the handle.

"Wait, wait. Ok, I did it, I planted the bomb in a compartment in the back of the car, up against the driver's seat" Brenda stopped and with the rest of us, turned to look back at Weatherly.

Sighing, she turned and walked back towards him.

"Your last chance Mr Weatherly, do not try my patience again. If I think you're lying, withholding information or playing games, I walk out of here, I do not stop, I hand you over to the Feds and I go home to sleep. That's game over, go to Guantanamo, do not pass go, do not collect $200 dollars, do I make myself very, very clear Mr Weatherly?" Weatherly nodded slowly, numbly.

Brenda leaned in close and spoke in a low, harsh voice that carried throughout the utterly still room.

"Do I make myself clear Mr Weatherly, yes or no?" Weatherly wet his lips and stared down at the floor, defeat evident in his posture.

"Yes" Brenda leaned back.

"Now tell us all exactly what you did Mr Weatherly"

30 minutes later it was all over. Weatherly had confessed everything. He'd realised that his position as D-Crypts manager was under threat. Tony Jefferson was about to be made an offer to work directly for D-Crypt, which Weatherly saw as the first step in being replaced as D-Crypts confidant.

That meant not only was he likely to be replaced as D-Crypts manager, it would also mean his exposure, turned out he'd been skimming money out of his boss's finances to support a growing gambling habit, something that any competent audit would expose.

Weatherly thought he could keep it hidden, at least until he made a 'big score' and win enough back to replace what he'd stolen. As long as D-Crypt had enough money to keep him in wine, women, bling and blow, Weatherly had been safe, the finances were in his hands.

The whole feud thing with G.B.H. was just part of business, he hadn't really tried to get it called off, downloads of both artist's raps had gone through the roof in the wake of the feud as fans couldn't get enough of the trash talking, which meant more money rolling in.

It was when the studio insisted on security that things went pear shaped. Weatherly had gone along with it, thinking that the security would be the sort of rent-a-cops you saw in movies. He hadn't been prepared for the sort of people Walter's company employed; they were very smart, very good and very professional. All of which had caught D-Crypts eye, especially Tony Jefferson. D-Crypt liked him and made no secret that he was thinking of taking him on as security manager.

The likelihood that someone with half a brain might end up close to D-Crypt was a terrifying thought to Weatherly, one that had caused him to try and get him removed from the team.

When that blew up in his face, he'd seen the writing on the wall and moved to fix the problem permanently. He'd thought of hiring a ganger to kill Tony, but realised that would lead things straight back to him, so he'd hit upon the idea of making it look like a botched hit on D-Crypt, one that would lead back to G.B.H.

He hadn't actually thought it through far enough to realise that a bombing at a hotel would look like a terrorist attack, triggering a major response from both the LAPD and the Feds.

Searching the net he'd found a bunch of websites that described how to make a bomb from commonly available components then built one and stashed it in a box stowed in a compartment behind the driver's seat. With a push of a button he thought he'd fixed all his problems, instead he'd ended three lives and ruined over 50 more.

By the time he'd finished, we were all tired and a bit disgusted, but happy to wrap it up. Sharon retrieved her iPhone with his confession and placed it in her purse; as Julio directed uniformed officers to cuff him while Jane read him his rights. As he was led from the room Brenda stopped the officers and spoke.

"Book him please gentlemen, three counts of murder, 52 counts of attempted murder, they'll do for now, we'll work out the rest of the charges in the morning" Weatherly looked up.

"What happens now, you won't hand me over to the Feds, you promised?" Brenda stayed calm in the face of his pleading.

"Don't worry Mr Weatherly, I keep my word, the Feds don't get you" He nodded slowly, grateful. "Instead you'll be charged under California law and face the death penalty for multiple counts of murder and attempted murder" The shock on his face was a sight to behold.

"What!?" Brenda shrugged.

"I promised to keep you from Guantanamo and a firing squad. Instead you'll be convicted and spend your time on death row here in California, until your sentence is carried out via lethal injection"

"You can't, you can't, you lied. You can't do this"

"I can and I will Mr Weatherly" Brenda nodded to the grinning uniformed officers. "Get him out of here" They dragged him out of the room, none too gently, as he continued to scream protests at Brenda. I saw Sharon gently rest her hand on Brenda's arm, offering comfort and getting a tired, sad smile in return.

"I'm ok, I'm just glad we wrapped it up" They shared a quick look before Brenda looked around the room at everyone.

"Great job everyone, a major investigation wrapped up in less than five hours, probably a Major Crimes record" Andy nodded.

"For one this size, yeah probably" Brenda smiled.

"Let's go share the good news with Pope. There's one man who'll be ecstatic, think of all the overtime we've saved him"

Provenza chuckled a little bitterly.

"I'm not sure I can handle the thought of an ecstatic Pope at this time of the night, well morning actually" Sharon sniggered quietly.

"Or any other time truth be told" There was a wave of laughter across the team as we all smiled. Brenda looked around the room, gathering us all in with her eyes.

"I'd just like to thank you all for being here tonight. I mean not the bombing bit, but tonight. It was one of the best times I've ever had, here with my friends. It means a lot to share it with you all" There was a chorus of agreement; it'd been a damned good night.

I saw Brenda and Sharon smile, just for each other, just for a moment lost in each other's eyes. I made a mental note that next weekend had to be something special, something as good as they had deserved it.

Finally, with her warm brown eyes still lost in Sharon's green, Brenda spoke softly, but loud enough for all of us to hear.

"I wouldn't have missed it for anything"


	78. Chapter 78

As always, all rights to the characters of The Closer and Rizzoli and Isles reside with their respective rights holders.

Thanks to Kyra Sedgewick and Mary McDonnell for the inspiration they provide. Writing these two is a joy, the dialogue practically writes itself.

**Café conversations**

Sharon's viewpoint

It was Monday evening and the weather was nice enough that Brenda and I had made the 15 minute walk together from the LAPD headquarters building to our café, just enjoying the weather, the evening and each other's company.

We were both tired, it had been a crazy weekend, the Ball, an amazing night dancing together and then the bombing. Everyone had only had a few hours' sleep before we had to be back at work, with most of Sunday tied up giving statements, wrapping up the paperwork and dealing with the aftermath of Weatherly's confession.

Brenda and I'd chatted, snuck a kiss or two when we could before everyone headed out on Sunday evening for as much sleep as possible. Today had been busy, with bits and pieces falling into place on our OIS investigation, so we were matching business with pleasure, talking shop over dinner, mind you neither of us needed a reason to spend time together, not now, not anymore.

Brenda was wearing a tailored grey jacket and skirt combo over a black blouse, we'd picked it out on a shopping trip ages ago but I liked it on her, it emphasised her hourglass figure, not to mention hugging her ass so nicely.

It looked so good on her I'd almost wanted to walk behind her, just to see everything move in all the right places, lovely long legs perched on top of those wickedly sexy black patent leather heels.

I didn't, but I did wonder, seeing her in that lovely suit, if I hadn't subconsciously packaged her up in something I liked looking at her in so much, months before I'd admitted that I really wanted her.

Whatever the reason she looked lovely and I just liked looking at her. I got the impression the feeling was mutual as I caught her checking me out of the corner of her eyes several times. I'd foregone the usual pants suits for a blue blazer over a cream dress and matching heels. Brenda had shyly admitted to me yesterday that she liked looking at my legs, so I'd worn it specially for her today. I got the impression from the small smiles I was getting that she appreciated my choice.

Arriving at the café Sarah waved us to the back to where our usual table waited, we knew our drinks wouldn't be far behind.

"So sweetie, what'd you find out about our OIS victim?" I leaned back in the booth and sighed, it was good to finally be able to relax.

"Well, Maura confirmed this morning that Dimery had major cosmetic surgery to alter his face sufficiently that he wouldn't be recognised by his own mother" Brenda nodded.

"That much surgery's expensive, ties in with your WitSec theory"

"Yep, Ana spoke to the Justice Department; my usual contacts on holiday but she was able to arrange a meeting with the senior WitSec officer here in Los Angeles, I saw him this afternoon"

We both looked up and smiled as Sarah delivered our drinks. I swear they were getting faster, at this rate they'd be waiting for us to arrive soon. With a cheerful wave she headed off to take the order of a couple a few tables away, leaving us in peace. Brenda took a sip and smiled, before turning her attention back to me with a questioning gaze. I smiled.

"When I mentioned Robert Dimery he tried to play it cool, but when Jose Rodriguez and Hector Garcia's names came up he looked like he was trying to pass a baseball" At her confused look I felt I needed to clarify what I meant. "Y'know, got a really strained expression, all gritted teeth and narrow eyes" Brenda's laughter was rich and happy. Finally she subsided, tears of mirth in her eyes.

"Nice turn of phrase there sweetie, I wish I'd been there to see that" She shook her head, obviously taken by my description. Finally she subsided. "So what'd he tell you?"

"He admitted all three were in Witsec. Turns out they'd all given evidence against the Sinaloa cartel. Dimery was a high-level lieutenant, handling money transactions between the cartel and their distributors here in the States. Rodriguez and Garcia had been lower-level people, handling distribution of drugs and enforcement; all turned evidence against the cartel and ended up in Witsec. Now they're all dead" Brenda slumped a little in her seat, her former good humour gone.

"So we have three former Sinaloa people, all turned against the cartel, gave evidence and ended up in Witsec, then turned up dead, at the hands of two of our detectives. Oh my lord" I nodded slowly.

"Yep, that was my reaction as well. One of those moments when I didn't really want us to be right, well you were right, you called it long before I did" She shrugged.

"I had a different perspective is all, you would have got there soon enough, so what now?"

"I got him to run down anyone else with ties to the Sinaloa cartel in Witsec here in California who's ended up dead over the past few years, see if there's a pattern" Brenda's mouth quirked as she thought that over.

"What are you thinking Sharon?"

"I was chewing over something you said, that the only reason this turned up as an OIS was because we had a Black and White on scene so quickly. I was wondering if there hadn't been a shooting then what would have happened" Brenda considered that for a bit.

"You think that something went wrong and they covered it up as an OIS?" I nodded.

"Possibly, it would explain a few things. Like why use their own service weapons which are already in the system? The moment the body turns up we'd run ballistics and tie the bullets to their guns"

"So they knock on the door, flash the badges, get the vic to relax and then do…something. But in this case it went wrong, Dimery ran or fought and they shot him and then planted the weapon to make it look clean"

"A weapon registered to an owner killed in a robbery gone wrong 18 months ago, a robbery in which the lead investigating officer was one Detective Kennedy of Robbery Homicide" Brenda's mouth did that exasperated quirk that I've become so used to.

"Oh this just gets better and better" We paused as Sarah came over and we placed our orders; Lasagne for Brenda and Spaghetti Bolognese for me, it seemed to be a night for Italian. Once she departed Brenda took up the thread again.

"Does this give us enough to go looking for a court order to look into their bank accounts?" I shrugged.

"I'm not sure, we'd need a sympathetic judge, one who's prepared to cut us some slack, we don't have a lot of hard evidence" She sighed.

"It is pretty circumstantial"

"That it is, unfortunately. While you managed to get a confession out of Weatherly based on some pretty flimsy circumstantial evidence, without it we wouldn't have had much of a leg to stand on. Same here, but I doubt Kennedy would roll over if we questioned him, he'd scream for a lawyer and clam up immediately" Nodding sadly, Brenda leaned forward.

"So where's this leave us?"

"Still digging I'm afraid. We could be at this for weeks, picking away at loose ends to see what unravels" Brenda gave me a sly smile.

"So we're stuck working together on this for weeks?"

"Looks that way" She looked down at her coffee.

"Well, it's not like I had better things to do with my evenings…" We both had a soft chuckle at that, neither of us were social butterflies, both too married to the job. I spoke softly

"I'm kinda hoping that might change" We exchanged smiles at that. Brenda bit her lip for a moment before speaking.

"Any idea what Maura and Natalie have planned?" I shook my head.

"Nope, not a clue, though apparently they've quite a track record in setting up great nights"

"Yeah, I remember those shots of them you showed me, oh my lord"

"I doubt we'll be going to The Intersection on Saturday though" She looked at me, brown eyes full of questions as I explained why

"It's got a reputation as a full-on lesbian dance club, some pretty hard core people there, plus it's a renowned pick up joint. I doubt they'd be taking us to a place where we'd spend our first night out together fighting off unwanted attention" I looked at her, my voice softening.

"I don't want anyone else, just you; and I don't want to share" Brenda looked down, her cheeks colouring gently, before she spoke in a soft voice.

"I don't want to share either" Her hand slid across the table and into mine, making me happy.

We sat there for a while, both with small smiles on our faces, before Sarah arrived with dinner. If she'd noticed us holding hands she didn't show it as she dished up.

We sat and ate for a while in a companionable silence, before leaning back. I smiled across the table at Brenda.

"It's been a while since I've been on a girl's night out, let alone a date night. I have to confess I'm a little nervous about it" She looked back at me and smiled as well.

"It's been a lot longer for me sweetie, I'm actually nervous as hell" I smiled.

"No need, you don't have to do anything different, just be the person I know. I like that person" Brenda smiled, before the smile fell away from her face, something was bothering her, I could tell.

"What's up Brenda?" She stared away into the distance for a moment, before coming back to me, her face sad and wan. I wanted to kiss her right then and there and make her smile again. "What's the matter?"

"Sharon, you said you liked the person you knew. What if there was more to me that you didn't know, maybe you wouldn't like me then" I smiled, happy to reassure her.

"I doubt that, I've seen you at your best and your worst honey, I still like you" Brenda sat there gazing at me quietly.

"You haven't you know" I frowned, she was worrying me a little, this was so unlike her.

"Haven't what Brenda?" She looked at me with sadness in her eyes.

"Seen me at my worst" I cocked my head, looking at her.

"What do you mean?" Brenda looked down at the table

"I've done things, despicable things really, behaved abominably and done some things I'm ashamed of" I smiled and tried to make a joke out of it, trying to lighten the mood.

"I'm sure they can't be too bad, I mean you don't wear those hideous floral skirts as much anymore thank god, they were pretty bad" It didn't help, Brenda didn't even smile. Her voice was soft, sad; it hurt to hear her like that.

"Sharon, what if you don't like me, the person I was, the things I've done" I realised she was serious, whatever was bothering her was pretty important to her, I ditched the humour and went with honesty.

"Brenda, nothing you've done could change how I feel about you, you're a good person"

"Not always. I did things, when I was with the agency, terrible things. They were why I left, then when I did leave I did other things that I'm not proud of either" I reached out and snared her fingers, hooking mine in hers and drawing her hand into mine.

"Why don't you let me be the one to determine if I don't like what you did? Tell me and we'll talk them through" She looked a little scared.

"I want to, I'm just scared that you won't like what you hear, maybe not want to be around me afterwards" I leaned forward.

"Brenda, if you've murdered anyone I'd help you hide the body, ok? Seriously I doubt you've done anything that will change my opinion of you"

"Don't be so sure Sharon, I've done some pretty horrible things"

"Then tell me about them and let me be the judge ok?" She let my hand go and sat back.

"It happened when I was with the agency. Over the years I was with them, I changed, became a different person. The agency has its own worldview, its own institutional culture; it sucks you in and seeps into you, till one day you look back and wonder how you ended up this person you don't recognise"

I nodded, I could easily imagine an organisation like the CIA would do that, given the world they lived and worked in.

"Anyway, I'd realised that I was changing in ways I didn't like, but I was kinda lost in the job. Some of the things I did there were good, some bad, some really rewarding. You got to match wits with really smart, really capable people, some of them make the criminals we've put away here look like imbeciles by comparison" She smiled for a moment, before it slid off.

"It was 1990, Kuwait had been invaded and the Gulf War was about to happen. I was urgently flown to Saudi Arabia to conduct an interrogation of a scientist who had been kidnapped out of Iraq by a combined allied Special Forces team before Desert Storm started"

"Was this to do with weapons of mass destruction?" Brenda looked up and nodded.

"He'd been trained in the Soviet Union; spoke fluent Russian, which is why I was involved. I'd worked with the British and French before so they agreed that I should do the interrogation" She paused for a moment, staring off into the distance, reliving something terrible. I wanted to reach for her, give her comfort, but I also realised Brenda needed to do this, needed to unburden herself of this. I needed it too, so I could show her that it didn't matter to me, to us.

"There was so much pressure Sharon, the Pentagon, the White House, the British, French, all of the allied nations were terrified that Saddam had WMD and was willing to use them. We had to know, everything came down to me. I kept up the pressure for days, trying to get him to talk"

"What happened?" Her eyes flicked up to mine for a moment, before they dropped to the table again, where she was toying with her napkin.

"I broke him" I frowned.

"And?"

"You don't understand Sharon, I broke him. The threats, to him and his family, his…children, the psychological pressure, day after day, his mind couldn't take it. He broke under questioning and had a complete mental breakdown. His mind snapped; he retreated into a catatonic state, completely unresponsive, a vegetable" I was stunned. I knew Brenda was like a dog with a bone during her interrogations, but I'd never imagined something like this.

"Oh. Brenda, you didn't intend that to happen, it must have been a flaw he had"

"Sharon, I did that. I had everyone on my back night and day. I'd walk out after an interrogation session and there'd be a phone waiting for me, they'd hand it to me and I'd be talking to the Joint Chiefs in the Pentagon, demanding to know if Saddam had WMD. Literally everyone was demanding results and I pulled out everything to get them" She twisted the napkin in her hands, I could see the turmoil she was going through, these memories were taking her back to a place she'd kept walled off for a long time.

"His family, we threatened them, in front of him. They saw things, awful things, things that no children should ever have to see, they were five and seven years old Sharon; they shouldn't have had to see their father like that"

"You needed the information; you did what you thought needed to be done"

"I'd lost my humanity Sharon. I was the one who decided to use his children against them. I was the one who told him that if he didn't tell us what we needed to know, his children would suffer. I was the one who ordered his children brought into the interrogation room and told him what we would do to them. I did that, no one else; me!" Her voice was still low, but a hint of desperation had crept in. The sound of it shook me.

"What did you find out?"

"My report stated that it was a high order probability that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, definitely including chemical and biological agents and probably nuclear weapons" She shrugged helplessly. "Turns out I was wrong, Iraq never even got close to nuclear weapons"

"You weren't to know that"

"Finding that out was my job. I messed up. That report formed the basis for the intelligence that drove the next decade's response to Iraq, the operations against suspected nuclear sites, the sanctions, all those deaths, I was responsible. I have the blood of thousands on my hands" I could see Brenda was close to tears, she'd obviously held this close to her ever since.

"Honey, you did the best you could, under a lot of pressure. You didn't intend for it to end the way it did, it wasn't what you wanted, was it?" Brenda shook her head slowly.

"Of course not, I did things I should never have done, done things that were unconscionable, lost myself in there" She looked up at me. "I agreed to things being done, because I didn't, I couldn't stand up to the demands, the pressure, to get answers"

I didn't really want to ask but I felt I had to, to help Brenda get everything out in the open, so she could move on. So we could move on, together. The reality of how much I wanted us to be together, the things I was ready to accept to get there, scared me a little.

It was as if she could have admitted to almost anything and I would have accepted it. I remembered the joking comment I'd made about helping hide the body. It actually frightened me how close to true that was. I cared for her more than almost anything.

I'd wondered if I was falling that hard that quickly for the impossible, messy, complex, beautiful woman sitting opposite me.

Looking at her, I had to be honest with myself. I already had.

If I had to ask unpleasant questions, make her face her demons, stand beside her while she did, to let her know I accepted her in spite of them, then I would. Brenda was too important to me not to. So I asked, even though I was afraid I'd cause her pain.

"What sort of things?"

"Waterboarding wasn't something discovered after 9/11 Sharon, it was being practised way back then, I saw it, signed off on it being done, even though it was wrong. Other things as well, sleep deprivation, drugged food and water, everything"

"Do you regret what was done Brenda, the threats, the torture, the results?"

"I didn't then Sharon, I really didn't. I signed off on them and didn't blink an eye. It was only later, when I realised what a monster I'd become, that I understood that I had to get out. Leave the agency, before I became even worse"

"How could you have become worse Brenda? It sounds like you felt you were pretty bad already" She grimaced.

"For most of my career I was going up against the Soviets, they were different, they were our enemies but I didn't hate them. I understood them; I knew where they were coming from. But in the 90s and especially after 9/11 the agency refocused against Islamic terrorism. People who thought suicide bombings and beheading or killing innocents by the hundreds was an acceptable way of behaviour" She shook her head slowly.

"The mind set that came with that was something I couldn't understand, I still can't really. It's a small step from not understanding something to hating that thing. I could see myself turning into an even worse monster. When the agency told me they wanted me to learn Farsi so that I could 'continue to get outstanding results' as they put it, I knew I had to get out" Brenda looked up at me and gave a bitter, hateful laugh, one that shook me.

"You know, they gave me a medal for what I'd done in that room in Dhahran? A medal for god's sake, I'd traded my soul for a piece of ribbon and metal. At least Judas got paid in silver"

"What happened to the Iraqi scientist and his family?

"We were ordered to hand them over to the Kuwaiti's, I don't know what eventually happened to him, but I doubt it was anything good. They weren't in a particularly forgiving mood after they'd learned what was happening inside occupied Kuwait"

"So you left the agency?"

"Eventually, they tried very hard to convince me to stay, told me how important the work I was doing, how they needed me" She looked at me for a moment, a tiny smile on her face.

"It was all very nice, to have the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency tell you how important I was, how no one else could do the job I did, offer me a nice big corner office with a secretary and a staff and a fancy title like Assistant Director on the door" She shrugged.

"It was tempting, everyone needs to be told that they're important, wanted, appreciated, needed. But all I could see was more rooms like that one in Dhahran, more broken victims, my soul dying bit by bit" I couldn't remain quiet.

"But you walked away Brenda; you turned your back on that"

"I had to Sharon. I was turning into something I'd only read about in books. You know Stalin had an interrogator and executioner, a torturer really. Vasili Blokhin was a butcher, to the point that he was such a monster that even Stalin was afraid of him. Stalin kept him round because he was good at what he did, but he was an inhuman monster. I didn't want to go down that path, so I walked away"

"That's because you weren't a monster, you have a conscience"

"I'd almost lost it Sharon; I rediscovered it almost too late"

"But you did rediscover it honey, that's what's good in you, you walked away from the power and prestige to protect your soul and your conscience, I admire that"

"What I did afterwards wasn't very admirable Sharon" I looked at her, wondering what she'd done.

"I hated what I'd become, I felt I had to be punished, so I let myself be punished. For months I stayed in a small apartment in New York. I went there to be anonymous, too many people knew me in DC. I'd come out to shop for food and alcohol, sometimes I'd go out to bars and let some random guy take me back to their place and fuck me. I wasn't living, I was existing"

"Oh god Brenda, why?"

"Because I didn't think I deserved better, that I wasn't really worth anything more. I hated myself, loathed myself actually; I wanted to be punished for what I'd done"

"Brenda, you didn't deserve that, you'd made a mistake and then made the right decision, you walked away to do the right thing" She shrugged.

"I didn't feel that way then. I felt like I was a worthless piece of shit and that I deserved to be punished. I felt that way for months"

"What changed?"

"A couple of things; One guy got me drunk, then tried to strangle me during sex" I was appalled.

"Some kind of kinky auto-asphyxiation thing?" She shook her head, blonde curls tumbling in the light.

"More like kinky serial killer thing. He was using a pair of women's stockings, not mine either" I just looked at her, stunned. She shrugged; her voice unemotional.

"I wasn't too drunk to not remember my training, I shoved my thumb into one eye socket; he was too busy screaming in agony to worry about me. I got dressed and got out of there in a hurry, I doubt he'd ever see out of that eye again either" I just stared at her, wondering at how close she'd come to dying, feeling a bit numb.

"Another night I was in a bar in Manhattan, got picked up by two guys, we got drunk and they took me back to a hotel and fucked me all night. I did anything they wanted, they fucked me in every hole, sometimes at the same time, treated me like a cheap whore, left me almost comatose afterwards. When I came to I snuck out of there before they woke up"

I was appalled, Brenda, my gorgeous, wonderful Brenda, behaving like that.

"Oh my god Brenda, why?" She looked down at the table, obviously ashamed.

"I needed the human contact, the sex. It made me feel like I was worth something to someone. I won't lie, I enjoyed it, the sex was great, even if I'd behaved like a slut and done anything they wanted. I also felt I needed to be punished. That they could do whatever they wanted, it was what I deserved"

"Oh no honey, you didn't deserve that, you deserve better. You deserve to be held and cherished and adored and loved," Brenda blinked at me for a moment, as it hit me, as we both realised what I'd just said. A slow, small smile appeared on her face.

"You think so Sharon?" I made my decision right there.

"Every word of it Brenda, every single word" The smile got wider and I reached out for her, slipping my hand into hers, feeling the need for the physical reassurance to go with the words.

We sat there for a moment, just feeling each other's presence, as we stared at each other, talking without words. I saw tears starting to form in her eyes and she hastily straightened up and went fishing for a tissue, dabbing at her eyes.

I noticed Sarah looking our way, a concerned look on her face. I caught her eye and she smiled uncertainly, but at a nod from me, she nodded back and turned away.

Brenda sighed deeply, looking back at me.

"I'm sorry Sharon"

"Brenda Leigh, don't you dare apologise for being human. I won't stand for it you hear?" She nodded. "Is this the first time you've told anyone…" Brenda looked down at the table top before nodding slowly. "Then I'm glad you feel you can trust me enough to tell me" At that her head came up.

"Why of course I trust you, Sharon, you were my best friend before things between us changed, I'd trust you with my life. God alone knows you've proven worthy of that before" I couldn't help it; I felt a huge smile breaking over me at her words. That was before she spoke again.

"I'd trust you with my heart too, if you asked nicely" I swallowed convulsively for a moment, as I understood what she was saying. Finally I managed to get words out past the lump in my throat.

"Then I'll have to ask very, very nicely" The smile I got back lit up the room. We sat there for a little while, not saying much, but we didn't have to. Finally, Brenda spoke.

"I realised I needed to get my life back in order, otherwise I'd end up dead. So I called in a few favours, got steered towards a job with the DC Metro PD and found I liked law enforcement. That's how I would up here"

"I'm glad you did Brenda, very glad" She smiled.

"I felt it was important. I was doing the right thing, protecting the innocent, trying to atone for all the blood on my hands. Police work gave me a new career and a new life"

"And here you are"

"Yep, here I am" We looked up as a huge bowl of chocolate chip ice cream appeared between us, with two spoons. Sarah smiled down at us.

"There's nothing that can't be fixed by the application of lots of chocolate"

We both laughed and thanked her, before grabbing spoons and finishing the ice cream.

Deciding to call it a night, we paid and walked out into the night. Feeling daring I reached out and snared her hand, walking hand in hand, a smile on both our faces. I looked at her and smiled even more.

"Thank you for sharing that honey, I know it wasn't easy for you but I'm glad you did"

"Thank you for listening Sharon. You still like me?" I could hear the tiny shadow of doubt in her voice.

"More than ever" I pulled her to a stop in a patch of shadow. "Let me show you" With that I pulled her in tight and kissed her, getting an ardent response, as our tongues danced and teased. We must have been like that for almost 30 seconds, before we pulled apart slightly. Brenda's voice was shaky.

"Is it Saturday yet?" I smiled.

"Not yet unfortunately, it can't come soon enough" I could hear the tease in her voice.

"Damn" I smiled, leaning my forehead against hers.

"I almost want to take you home now, but we have to work tomorrow, I'd rather have all the time in the world" Her voice was a little whiney.

"Sharon, your teasing me" I had to giggle a little.

"No honey, I'm saying if it were anyone else, I'd drag you home for a quickie, but our first night is not going to be a quickie, we're going to do it right" She sighed.

"It's going to be a long time till Saturday"

"It'll come round sooner than you think"

"I s'pose" We kissed again before walking on, still holding hands.

"Hey ladies, want to play?" The voice had come from a gap between two buildings, the owner still in shadow. I dropped Brenda's hand and looked towards the shadow.

"No thanks" Brenda was equally firm.

"No"

"Too bad, I'm gonna have fun with you" I flashed a glance at Brenda and we both took a step back away from the darkness. A Caucasian guy, mid-20s maybe stepped out. He had the look of a junkie, strung out and desperate. I saw a short knife in his hand.

"Oh, for heaven's sake!" It was Brenda's voice. "Shoo, go way, I can't be bothered with this" I snickered, as much at her tone as her words. I threw her an amused glance.

"Don't you dare honey, I don't want to have to investigate you for an OIS" The junkie looked between us, obviously not expecting our cavalier reaction.

"Stupid bitches…" He took a step forward, as we both drew our weapons and turned them on him. His eyes suddenly got very wide, staring down the barrel of her Glock and my Beretta. I looked at him over the barrel and into his eyes.

"Drop the knife, now!" He hesitated; which was enough to piss Brenda off.

"You are ruining a great evening between me and my girlfriend; if you do not drop the knife right now I swear I'll shoot you out of sheer annoyance" The knife dropped with a clatter.

"Ok, ok, it's gone, it's gone" Brenda's voice was still pissed.

"Now turn around, go on, turn around" He did as she directed. "Now start running, if I see you anywhere round here again I swear I'll shoot you dead as easy as look at you, you got me"

"Yeah, yeah, I got you" I smirked at Brenda.

"The lady told you to run, why are you still here?" We watched as he bolted back into the shadows, his frantic footsteps fading into the night.

We stood there for a moment, before the giggles started. Tension bleeding off as we looked at each other. Placing our weapons back in our purses and collecting the knife, we looked at each other, which started us giggling again. Finally I sobered enough to speak.

"Shoo? Go way?" She shrugged nonchalantly.

"I was just annoyed, he was ruining our evening" I winked.

"Not to mention upsetting your girlfriend" She grinned.

"Well that too, though I think my girlfriend can take care of herself" We had another good laugh before we set off back towards work, our hands naturally falling together. Finally we arrived back at the LAPD car park. Standing there next to my car, Brenda spoke.

"Sharon, thank you for being so supportive, I was worried you wouldn't…well…"

"Honey, I think we've established that there's not much you could do that would scare me off, except maybe go back to those hideous floral skirts"

"Oh, you're terrible"

"Thank you" She smiled a little shyly.

"I mean it, I was worried"

"Brenda, we're in this together, I liked you before and what you've told me tonight changes nothing, either between us or how I feel about you"

Brenda stared for a moment, before she launched herself at me. I found myself pushed back against my car's door as Brenda kissed me, something I returned just as forcefully as she as I felt her hand on my waist and the other on my shoulder. Enjoying the feel of her I ran my hands over her curves, coming to rest on her ass cheeks, squeezing gently.

We must have stood locked together for a minute or more, before the need for air pushed us apart. Standing there, our arms around each other, we panted gently for a moment, before I spoke.

"Saturday can't come soon enough" Brenda turned that cheeky grin on me.

"Amen sister"

We kissed again, less urgently but just as nice, before we heard a car start up further down the car park, causing us to reluctantly pull apart.

"Sweet dreams Brenda, have a good night's sleep" She raised an eyebrow.

"Oh sweetie, the dreams will be nice, but I don't think they'll let me sleep too well"

"Funny, I'm having the same problem" We stood there smiling at each other, before she reluctantly stepped back.

"We should call it a night, we both have to work tomorrow" I sighed sadly.

"Yes we do" Brenda turned and took a few steps away before looking back at me over her shoulder.

"Good night Sharon" I smiled.

Night Brenda" She took another few steps.

"Text me when you get home?" I laughed.

"Of course" She made no move to keep walking, so I took a few steps up to her.

"Consider this something to dream about"

I leant in and kissed her mouth gently, ignoring the way it opened in welcome, instead trailing a series of butterfly kisses down her neck and onto her chest down into the cleavage on show in the v of her blouse. I could feel Brenda's breathing quicken in response, as I made my way back up her neck before stopping at her ear, where I whispered softly.

"I think that's enough inspiration for one night" As I stepped back I could see Brenda's eyes were wide and her breath coming in pants.

"Dammit Sharon, you're a dreadful tease" I just smiled.

"Yes I am, goodnight honey" I turned and strolled back to my car. Brenda's voice followed me.

"Night sweetie" I turned and watched her make her way to her car, where she stopped and looked back at me, before getting in and driving away.

I sighed. It was going to be a long week till Saturday.


	79. Chapter 79

**The Girls go to Blush**

Brenda's viewpoint

I'd been in a tizz all day, we were heading out to dinner and dancing tonight and I was a nervous as a canary at a cat show.

After the Ball and the discussions Sharon and I had shared during the last few weeks, it was pretty obvious that tonight was going to be the night. We were out with our friends, going to a ladies-only nightclub, the expectation was that we would be going home together and god I was nervous as hell.

One good thing was I'd channelled all that nervous energy into my apartment. It was spotless; it looked as clean as the day I'd moved in. Everything was washed, polished, cleaned and scrubbed. If we did end up here tonight I didn't want Sharon to be disappointed by how I lived.

To be honest, I preferred it this way; it was good to have the energy and the motivation to bring order to my life. I'd felt alive with possibilities, ever since the Ball, I'd had a new appreciation for living, not just existing.

I looked at myself, twisting and turning in front of the mirror, biting my lip nervously. Natalie had been quite explicit. Jeans, the tighter the better, a plain T-shirt, also tight, a comfortable jacket if I wanted and some serious 'fuck me' heels. Her description had been to look like 'sex on legs' and I hoped like hell I looked the part.

The pale blue stretch jeans were new, I'd bought them yesterday and they fitted like a second skin, making me glad I'd gone with a G string; I wanted no visible marks detracting from the look.

The tee was a plain white one, old enough to have shrunk to the point that it hugged me tightly in all the right places over a white silk and lace bra, while the red spiked heels were an old favourite. I dragged my black leather jacket out and pulled it on and off several times, wondering if it was the right look, it went with the outfit, but it might not work tonight.

Eventually the jacket went back in the closet; it was going to be a warm night and it was one less thing to worry about. I packed everything I needed into a red leather purse I'd picked up a few days ago to match the heels and belt.

I'd also spent ages looking at my hair, up, down, styled, loose, ponytail or twist; I didn't seem to be able to settle. Eventually I went for a high ponytail, it was cooler when dancing, it sort of went with the casual outfit and it made my neck look longer.

Finally my cell rang, Jane and Maura were on their way in a taxi and they'd pick me up on the way past. I spent the last 20 minutes before they arrived pacing and checking my reflection in the mirror. I wondered again about my hair and a jacket, before finally turning away, it was too late to change anything.

A quick call and I hurried down to where the taxi waited and climbed in the back next to Maura; they were both dressed similarly to me, Maura in a green tee and sinfully tight white jeans, Jane in black jeans which emphasised her long legs and a plain white tee. We exchanged compliments on the way to the restaurant, a hole in the wall Thai place which came highly recommended by David Gabriel.

Arriving we stepped inside to find the others had just arrived and were waiting to be seated. I saw Sharon and paused, my heart in my throat; she'd gone for a similar look, even having her hair in a high tail that left her neck exposed She had her back to me so I could run my eyes over her without being seen.

The dark blue jeans she was wearing were almost scandalously tight, dragging my vision across her tight toned ass and down those gloriously long legs. Her red tee contrasted against the black studded leather belt and a set of black patent leather stiletto heels that added a good four inches to her height.

I remembered Natalie's comment again; 'sex on legs'. My god Sharon looked the part; I swallowed nervously, my mouth suddenly dry as I ran my eyes up and down over her, then once again over that deliciously tight ass and those legs, oh my god, those legs.

Anastasia and Natalie looked their usual stunning selves, but I had eyes only for Sharon as she turned around. I saw her eyes widen as she took me in, before a warm sultry smile lit up her face.

As general hugs and kisses were exchanged, Sharon leaned in and whispered into my ear,

"God Brenda, you look good enough to eat" I felt myself blush, which immediately set off everyone else, who teased us both unmercifully as we were led to our table.

Dinner was great, lots of finger food, delicious curry things, the fish cakes were superb and the skewers divine, but I spent the entire time acutely aware that Sharon was seated next to on the bench seat, her hip and leg pressed up against mine, lots of touches and closeness and her heady perfume, a faint hint of jasmine and frangipani.

By the time we had eaten I was almost giddy, everyone was having a great time, lots of silly stories and laughter and I was so happy to be here it almost made me forget the nervousness and the butterflies.

We made our way to Blush, only a few blocks away and I followed Natalie and Jane as they led us straight past the line and charmed the security people to let us right in. Once inside we checked our clutches and purses, claimed a table, grabbed some drinks and headed out onto the dance floor.

The next two hours passed in a blur of music and dance, feeling bodies brush against mine on the dance floor, I partnered everyone, but always came back to Sharon, as we swayed and danced to the beat.

Finally I couldn't keep going and made my way back to the table via the ladies. My feet were killing me, but I didn't care, I was having too much fun.

A striking raven haired woman stepped into my path as I approached the table, her arm blocking my way.

"Hey baby, I was watching you out on the floor, you look good" Her eyes ran over me, obviously liking what she saw. "Would you dance with me?"

I paused, unsure of how to answer her, as she laid her hand on my arm. Then I saw the girls at our table turn to look, obviously they'd spotted what she was doing.

"You'll have to ask my girlfriend. That's her behind you"

She looked that way and was suddenly on the end of the patented Raydor death glare, plus the concentrated disapproval of four other striking women. Looking back, she stepped back out of my way.

"Oh, sorry, no offense"

"None taken" I smiled as I walked past, settling besides Sharon at the table.

"Thanks for the save guys" Sharon smiled at me while Jane laughed.

"I think she got the message" Anastasia leaned over.

"We couldn't throw you to the wolves Brenda, Sharon has plans for you later" Sharon just looked at her and rolled her eyes. "Whoa and I thought Nat did that well, that's impressive"

Natalie leaned over to be heard over the music.

"It's a good thing we didn't drag you to The Intersection for your first night, especially given what happened to us when we there" Her eyes ran over first Sharon, then I approvingly. "You'd both end up being hit on constantly. Towards the end we had to rescue Jane from an admirer who wouldn't back off"

Sharon raised one eyebrow.

"That sounds… interesting" Anastasia laughed.

"Oh it was. Ask Maura and Blondie here how they rescued Jane from a fate worse than death"

The story was finally told, albeit with much teasing and interruptions, by which time we were all laughing like idiots. I looked at the four of them; they were obviously close, remarkably so for having only met less than three months ago, a lot had definitely happened since then, one day I hoped to hear it all.

I looked across at Sharon, who was behaving in a most un-Commander Raydor like manner, happy, laughing like a fool with the rest of us, her eyes shining. I swear most of the LAPD wets their pants at a harsh look from her, they wouldn't recognise the woman sitting next to me if they tried, but I was so very happy to see her like this, for her to be my friend.

Tonight she was going to be a lot more than just a friend; we were going to leave here and well… I felt a blush rise as I realised I was going to see Sharon out of her clothes and she was going to see me naked.

I was going to go home with her; I was going to become her lover, a lesbian.

I faltered at that thought.

I was going to become intimate with her in a way I would never have contemplated a few weeks back. I was going to become a lesbian; Sharon and I were going to…

My mind went blank, I thought I was ready for this, but it was real, it was going to happen, tonight, with Sharon. I felt a sudden chill run through me, was I really ready for this? I realised that for all my anticipation, the reality of what I was going to do had hit me.

Would I be able to go through with it, for her sake? God I didn't want to hurt her, what if I did? What if I balked at the last moment, hurt her feelings, made her doubt herself, made her cry?

Before I realised what I was doing I had stood up and walked away from the table, feeling like I was fleeing my fears. I was dimly aware of Sharon calling after me, but kept walking, I needed some time to process everything that was happening to me, it was all overwhelming me, I was lost.

I realised I was standing in a corner, staring at the wall, when I felt a soft hand on my shoulder. I turned, expecting to see Sharon, but to my surprise it was Natalie, looking at me with those great blue eyes brimming with sympathy, it made me want to flee all over again.

"Brenda, are you OK? You worried me, us" I shook my head; the words wouldn't come to me.

She just gave me a small smile, searching my face. I tried again, in a small voice.

"Scared"

"She peered in closely at me, a worried look on her face, before determination set in.

"Come with me Brenda"

Brooking no argument, Natalie grabbed me by the hand and pulled me with her, down a corridor, past the toilets, before slamming open the door to the disabled toilet and dragging me inside, locking the door behind us and facing me.

"Brenda, what's up? You were having a great time, but now you look terrified. What's happened?"

"I don't know Natalie, I'm scared, I want this, but I don't know what I should be doing. It was ok in the abstract, but now it's real"

"Brenda, it's ok, it's ok to be nervous, it's your first time, but you're lucky. Sharon loves you; she'll be gentle and slow and make sure you don't feel like you're being pushed to do anything you're not ready for" I looked down at the floor.

"I know, but I worry, that I'll do something wrong, that I'll mess it up, that I'll disappoint Sharon" She gave a quick bark of laughter.

"Hah! As if" I looked up at her laughter.

"Sharon's practically drooling out there, we can all see it. She's trying to hide it because she wants you to be comfortable, to not feel pressured, but she's pretty obvious to me. I doubt she's looked away from you for more than 10 seconds at a time all night" I looked down at the floor again.

"I'm scared, it's all new and I don't want to mess it up, I want us to both work, both of us"

"We all want you to be happy Brenda, Sharon wants you to be happy, well she wants something else too, but mostly she wants you happy and confident and not afraid" I looked down to see my hands twisting and clenching; nerves I told myself.

Natalie took a step towards me and lifted my head up with a hand under my chin, peering into my eyes.

"Brenda, you may not believe this, but Sharon's probably as nervous about this as you are. She's invested a lot of herself into pursuing you and she's probably scared stiff that she'll disappoint you"

"I don't want to disappoint her"

"Then don't, just be the usual, happy, confident Brenda Leigh Johnson we all like and she fell for and I'm certain you couldn't disappoint her"

"I'll try. I'm sorry Natalie, I truly am. I'm like a nervous teenager, being invited to make out behind the barn for the first time an all" She smiled.

"Sharon's really not much better out there. She has her own insecurities too" I blinked, Sharon?

"Why whatever do you mean?"

Sharon's a middle-aged woman Brenda, she's probably afraid that you won't find her body appealing, or that you may decide that she's may be too old for you to want to be with" I was shocked.

"But she's beautiful!"

"Then you need to tell her that. She's a woman Brenda; we all come with our own insecurities. Tell her she's beautiful and show her that you appreciate her and you'll be fine"

"I don't know, what do I do, how do I make her believe that I think she's beautiful and I'm awed that she wants me?" She shook her head slowly, a smile on her face.

"Make her know it, leave her in no position to doubt how you feel, tell her…" She suddenly stopped, as a wicked smile appeared. "Or you could just show her"

"How"

"Make her feel it, make her absolutely sure you want this and you want her"

"I want her to know that, no matter what. I want her to know that I'm grateful and anxious and scared but I want her. I want her to be mine"

"Then walk out there and show her that, make sure she's under no misconception, make her weak at the knees and panting for you, can you do that?" I looked uncertain.

"How far should I go, tell her, kiss her, what?" Natalie grinned as she walked around me, her voice coming from behind me.

"Hands by your side Brenda; close your eyes and don't open them until I tell you" I felt nervous as hell but did as I was told.

I started a bit as I felt Natalie's fingertips on my arms, then her soft voice in my ear; I could feel her leaning into me from behind as she spoke.

"Sharon's out there Brenda, she's waiting for you"

Her fingers ghosted up my arms, leaving goose bumps in their wake.

"She's wondering where you are. She's nervous, a little concerned she's done something wrong" I went to speak, but she silenced me. "No, not a word Brenda, just listen" I quieted.

"She's standing out there; in those jeans and heels you liked the look of so much. Oh yes, I saw you stripping her with your eyes when you first saw her" I heard the smirk in her soft, breathy voice.

"And you thought you weren't into girls? Oh Brenda, who were you trying to kid?" She laughed softly. "That was so blatant of you and oh so very wicked"

I could feel her presence just behind me.

"The eye sex between you two's been practically X-rated all night"

Her hands ran up over my shoulders and I trembled a little at her touch.

"Now she's out there, looking a little lost because she can't see you, perhaps she thinks she's scared you off" I bit my lip, the thought made me sad and sorry and full of regret.

"Perhaps someone else out there see's it Brenda and they want to make her feel better. They look at her and see a beautiful woman who needs to be loved" I felt her hands making teasing little circles on my neck and I shivered, but for another reason. I was becoming aroused, very aroused and Natalie was doing it deliberately.

"Perhaps they'll walk up to her, offer to buy her a drink, offering sympathy and friendship and something more, Sharon wants you Brenda, but you're not there, because you're scared" I couldn't help it, the word escaped my lips.

"No!" I felt her breath warm on the back of my neck.

"Hush Brenda, you're here because you were frightened and now someone else out there is looking at Sharon and wondering why someone that lovely is all alone, so they will take her and love her and you'll be alone because you were afraid" I whimpered.

"No"

I felt her lips on my neck, tiny, teasing butterfly kisses that turned my skin to fire and made me gasp in shock.

"Does this feel good Brenda, does this make you feel" Oh god did it ever, I couldn't trust myself to speak, so I just nodded.

Her lips touched my neck again, tantalisingly softly, kissing down to the collarbone. I couldn't believe that she was doing this, driving me wild when she was someone else's? Oh god, why was she so cruel?

Her soft voice spoke again, so close to my ear I could feel the ghostly touch of her lips.

"It will feel a hundred times better with Sharon, she loves you Brenda, but you have to let her love you" I moaned softly, at her words and the images it conjured up.

"But someone else out there is looking at Sharon right now and scheming how to seduce her away from you. So they can take her to bed, make love to her, to make her theirs, not yours" My voice, was low, strained, anguished, the image was painful.

"No"

"Then go out there Brenda, she's waiting for you, for a sign" Her tongue traced down the side of my neck, before her lips pressed into my collarbone in a warm kiss, making me moan louder. "Go out there and claim her, make her yours, let everyone in the club know she belongs to you and you belong to her"

I felt her step back, her warmth leaving me and for a moment I missed it.

"Brenda" I opened my eyes and turned, Natalie was looking at me, smiling softly.

"Sharon is yours, let the world see that, now go"

I nodded, unable to say anything; I was in a desperate state of arousal. I felt like a missile, Natalie had armed and aimed me at my target; it was up to me to go in for the kill. She grinned and lifted her arm, pointing at the door.

"Go"

I strode out of there, Natalie at my back. Spotting Sharon standing there with Maura, looking around, my strode lengthened, desperate to close the distance.

She saw me coming and relief flooded her features, before she suddenly saw the look on my face. I saw her swallow convulsively, god knows what I looked like but I didn't care. She started to speak as I stormed up to her, but I didn't let her finish as my lips smashed into hers.

"Brenda mmph" I buried one hand in her hair, grabbing that oh so convenient ponytail, holding her head still as I attacked her mouth, while the other hand slid around to the small of her back and held her tightly to me. Her surprise must have lasted a second or two, before she was moaning into me, her hands pulling me to her, one on my neck, the other on my ass, squeezing tight, as our tongues entwined.

I don't know how long we were like that; all I know was that it felt so good I didn't want to stop.

Sharon tasted of wine and strawberries and smelt of jasmine and frangipani, I just wanted to inhale her, to taste her, to own her and never let her go.

Finally, I realised we both needed air and broke the kiss; we both stood there, still holding each other tight, as we gently panted, before she leaned in again and kissed me again, hard.

Finally we stepped back, realising that all eyes were on us. We looked around to see that the girls were watching us, smiling widely, beyond them I could see other people staring, some with surprise, some with envy and more than a few with desire shining in their eyes.

I looked back at Sharon as she spoke.

"My god Brenda, that was…"

"You Sharon, it's you"

"Wow, I think I should be worried, that was spectacular, I hope I can live up to your expectations" I smiled softly.

"I hope I can live up to yours" She smiled back.

"We'll have to find out together won't we honey?" I smiled wider.

"Why Sharon Raydor, that's awfully forward of you, are you trying to seduce me?"

"Damn straight"

"Good" We both laughed; all my nervousness had fled and it felt so good to be held in her arms, to feel her warmth and curves against me and her lips on mine. There was only really one thing to say.

"Take me home, please"


	80. Chapter 80

**A/N** This story is rated M for a reason, this chapter being one of them.

This chapter contains depictions of consenting adults doing what consenting adults do when they feel like it, so if sexual content isn't your thing, please skip the chapter and move on.

**Brenda and Sharon's first night Part 1**

Sharon's viewpoint

We tumbled out of Blush in a happy pile, with plenty of hugs and kisses from the other girls and with Brenda's arm wrapped tightly around my waist, holding me close. Mine was wrapped around hers and it felt so natural, so right. My mind was awhirl with possibilities, a little giddy with what had happened inside.

Brenda had suddenly disappeared, I was sure she had panicked and I'd lost her, then she'd just as suddenly reappeared, striding up to claim me as hers in such an emphatic way that I was still feeling the effects. She'd practically devoured me, right there in the club; I'd been left panting, stunned and amazingly turned on. It had been fantastic, even as I wondered what the hell had just happened and a little voice inside me asked whether I'd bitten off more than I could handle.

I flagged a cab and we hopped inside, for moment I was nonplussed, her place or mine, then I remembered, she'd asked me to take her home, to my home. I felt a shiver as I realised we were going back to my house, together, as more than friends, as lovers.

I gave the driver my address and settled back into the seat, with Brenda snuggling into me, her head buried in my neck, which brought its own special thrill.

I'd been having progressively hotter fantasies about Brenda for the last week, but none of them held a candle to having her here with me right now. I slid my arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer, while the other hand traced circles on her forearm.

I heard her mumble something then turn her head to kiss my neck, as I tried to stifle a gasp. Desperate to retain some focus I pulled my head back and looked at her.

"What was that honey?" She pulled back and turned a wonderfully slow smile on me.

"You smell nice Sharon; I don't think I'll ever smell jasmine or frangipani again without thinking of you here, tonight, with me" I leaned in and laid a kiss to the top of her head, breathing in the coconut scent of her shampoo, telling myself that this was real, I had Brenda Leigh Johnson in my arms, looking sinfully hot and sexy.

Natalie had told me the night's look was tight jeans, a tight t-shirt and killer heels, to look like 'sex on legs' she'd said and Brenda had fitted that to a tee. I'd watched her dance all night, imagining those lovely long legs wrapped around me, kissing my way along that wonderfully exposed neck, capturing that luscious mouth in a kiss. I smiled to myself as I realised I was going to do all of that tonight, starting right now.

I leaned into her, seeing those wonderfully soft brown eyes shining at me as I captured her lovely full lips in a soft kiss, which stayed soft for about two seconds before I pushed harder, to be met with equal ardour. I saw her eyes close, just before mine did, as we gave ourselves into the pleasure we both felt.

I don't know how long we stayed locked together like that, before I became aware of Brenda's hand sliding up and down my thigh, the tight jeans transmitting every touch to my overly sensitised skin. As it edged a little higher I felt my mouth dry a little. Pulling my head away, incredibly reluctantly, I glanced down at her hand, then back at Brenda, raising one eyebrow at her, knowing she knew exactly what I meant.

She smiled, ducking her head, while her hand continued its teasing movements.

Realising two could play that game I slid my hand across her torso, skimming the underside of her breasts, smiling as I heard her breath hitch

She looked up at me with wide eyes, just in time for me to capture her mouth again, slipping my tongue gently in. I could feel the hum as Brenda gently moaned, as her tongue vied with mine. I mused that the driver must have been getting an eyeful, but didn't give a damn. I had an armful of Brenda Leigh Johnson and wasn't going to stop for anything.

Breaking the kiss, I smiled at her, before leaning in and laying a trail of kisses along her jaw line, then down her neck, as Brenda tilted her head back to allow me access, her hands clutching at my shoulder and ponytail, pushing me into her. Brenda tasted of orchids and something else, her own unique scent; I couldn't wait to fill my senses with her textures and tastes and scents tonight.

I could feel her moving, shifting position, somehow Brenda ended up straddling me, her knees on each side of my hips, her body bucking into mine, hands on my shoulders as she burrowed into my neck, her kisses setting my skin afire, while my hands wandered across her back and cupped her ass, pulling her into me even tighter as I kissed and gently sucked the side of her soft throat.

The cab pulling to a stop brought us to our senses long enough to get out and thrust a handful of notes at the smirking driver, before we wrapped our arms around each other and strode in step up the driveway and onto the porch.

I fumbled in my clutch for the key, as Brenda fidgeted.

"C'mon sweetie, after all that build up please don't make me wait, I don't wanna wait"

Fishing the keys out, I glanced at her as I opened the door.

"Eager much Brenda?" I caught a swift grin.

"Hell yes"

I ushered her in, closing the door behind me as Brenda wandered down the hall.

As I turned, I saw Brenda standing there staring at me, one leg thrust to the side, her hand on her hip, the other reaching out to me.

"C'mere Sharon, I need you" The throaty timbre of her voice told me as much as her words, I swallowed then stepped up to her, taking her hand and bringing it to my lips, where I gently kissed the palm of her hand. I could feel her shiver as my lips touched her skin.

Brenda may have never been with a woman, but she had the moves of a born seductress, as she took hold of my fingers and pulled them towards her, laying a kiss on the back of my hand, then smaller butterfly kisses on each knuckle, then each finger, before, with a tiny smile, she sucked my index finger into her mouth, gently sucking and caressing it with her tongue as her eyes watched me. I closed my eyes, feeling my head tip back as I basked in the gentle touch and the knowledge that this was real, so real and so much better than any fantasy ever could be.

I heard a low needy groan and realised it had come from me. Opening my eyes, I reached up and caressed the side of her face with my other hand, watching as her eyes closed and she leaned into my touch.

Removing my finger from her hot wet grasp, I replaced it with my mouth and tongue, sliding it into a warm welcome. Taking a leaf from her book I grasped her ponytail and used it to hold her still as I did my best to ravage her mouth, hearing her moan as I did.

That gentle, needy sound only spurred me on. I took hold of the back of her tee and pulled it gently out of her jeans, giving me the room to slide my hand inside and up her back, hearing her hum softly as I reached the soft warm skin underneath.

Brenda pushed forward, pressing her body against mine, her hands on my neck and waist, pulling me even closer. I hummed in approval as my hand reached the soft silk and lace of her bra strap, I could feel it was just like her, beautiful and feminine and just slightly over the top. I couldn't wait to see it on her, or to be honest, taking it off her.

I don't know how long we stood there like that, engrossed in each other, before I felt her hands slide down over my waist and lower, cupping my ass and squeezing me tight, one leg hooked around mine, as she clung to me tightly.

I realised that as much as I loved kissing her, undressing Brenda was going to be even more fun, so I slowly broke the kiss and waited for her to open her eyes. Eventually, a small languid smile playing on her lips, she looked up at me, her eyes deep dark pools of lust.

"Mmm, that's so good sweetie, I wanna do that all night" I smiled at her throaty voice.

"So do I, but as sexy as you are in those jeans, I really want to see you out of them"

"Why Sharon Raydor, what sort of girl do you think I am?"

"A very, very sexy one"

"Takes one to know one" Smiling I stepped back, taking her by the hand and leading her through the kitchen and living area and down the hall to the bedroom.

The lights from the kitchen threw enough light to keep the room in a dim light, soft and low but enough to see what we were doing. Turning, I reached out as I drew her in, wrapping Brenda in another embrace as we kissed again.

I became aware that her hands were pulling my shirt out of the jeans and I stepped back, leaving her pouting a tiny bit.

"You first Brenda, I want to see you, please?"

With a shy smile Brenda slowly reached down, undoing her belt and unbuttoning her jeans, sliding the zipper down slowly, the noise loud in the quiet room, before crossing her arms across her torso and slowly pulling the tee up and over her shoulders, revealing an indulgently lovely lace and silk bra. Unconsciously I found myself licking my lips at the sight of her full breasts, so close, so lovely.

"Your turn" Her voice was soft and needy and teasing all at once, that Georgia accent even more pronounced.

I reached down and pulled the t-shirt up and over me, feeling my hair spill everywhere, as Brenda took me in, I was inordinately proud and gratified to see her eyes widen, before her tongue peeked out to wet her lips.

"Oh god Sharon, you're lovely" I smiled at the compliment.

"You Southern girls, all sexy and charming, I bet you turn all the girls' heads" She gave a small shy smile.

"I think I'm the one having her head turned Sharon, the way you're staring at me I think I'm on the menu"

"Oh god yes honey, I plan on eating you up tonight" I watched the blush spread across her face and neck. "But for me to do that, you're going to have to get out of those jeans" Brenda looked down, then peered up at me from under her lashes.

"Can I have a hand sweetie, these are nice and don't think I didn't see you admiring them, but they're so tight it's going to be like peeling off a second skin' She ran her hands down her thighs. "I don't think I can get them off gracefully, not without some help" I swallowed as I contemplated what she was asking me, staring at her in the soft light, her slow smile telling me she knew what she was letting herself in for.

"Oh yeah" I whispered to myself. "I can do this" Stepping up to Brenda I pulled her into a kiss, luxuriating in the feeling of our skin touching as I wrapped her in my arms.

I don't know how long we stood there before I very reluctantly broke the kiss and tugged on her hips, turning her round till she was standing facing away from me.

Starting at the top of her neck I placed a kiss there, then another one just a little lower. I heard Brenda giggle a little at the first, but as I worked my way lower the giggles stopped and the soft moans started, together with a gentle shivering. As I passed over the strap of her bra I noticed it had no clasp, meaning it opened at the front. Filing that incredibly useful piece of information away, I kept going down her lovely, oh so soft back. Running my fingertips up and down her rib cage she started to tremble, so I grabbed her hips and stilled her, holding her long enough to work my way down to her waist,

Sliding my thumbs into her waistband, I worked the jeans inch by inch over her hips and down. Brenda wasn't kidding, they were skin tight, but I didn't mind, as I slowly unwrapped my present.

As I saw her g string appear, revealing a tightly toned pair of ass cheeks, I licked my lips again, looking forward to tearing that lacy scrap off her soon enough, once I got her under me.

Sliding it further down, it became easier to move the jeans; unfortunately it was becoming seriously harder for me. As I kissed over each cheek of her butt and down each leg as it was revealed, I could hear Brenda's moans, more importantly I could smell the first subtle scent of her arousal; she was obviously painfully turned on. One hand was gently tousled in my hair, the other playing with her breasts. Finally I got the jeans down to her ankles and gently pulled first one foot up and out of her heels, then the other, sliding them off along with the jeans as she balanced herself with her hand on my shoulder.

Finally she stood there, barefoot in her lingerie, looking so delicate and so much smaller without her heels. As I stood back up she turned and looped her arms around my neck as I bent to capture her lips with mine. It was my turn to capture her ass in both hands as I lost myself in the sensation, feeling our heated bodies pressed together.

I was brought back by Brenda's hands sliding down my back, before she reached my jeans and slid her hands between us, obviously intent on getting me out of them. I stood back and smiled at her as I unbuttoned them and slid the zipper down, then slid them down my legs, before stepping out of them and my heels at the same time.

I saw Brenda licking her lips as she looked at me, taking in the black silk lingerie and casting a slow, appraising stare all over my body. I felt myself blushing at the attention, which Brenda must have seen.

"You look lovely Sharon, I don't know how you do it"

"Lots of hard work honey, but it's so worth it to hear you say that" She smiled and stepped up, sliding her arms around me, something I was more than happy to reciprocate as we stood there, wrapped in each other. I could feel her soft warm skin pressed against me, giving me their own tingles as she buried her head in my shoulder.

I don't know how long we stood there, just holding each other, feeling her hair against my cheek, luxuriating in the fact that Brenda was here, with me, willing to give herself to me tonight.

If someone had suggested to me a month ago that we would be here like this now, I would have thought them insane, right now I considered myself blessed.

I felt Brenda's hands slide down my back slowly, moving over the swell of my ass to cup me as she started to gently grind herself into me. Smiling to myself, I mimicked her actions, feeling the soft skin on her butt, my thumb teasing the edge of her thong.

I could hear her breathing starting to speed up as she moved gently against me, not helped when I leaned in and started kissing the top of her head, where it was buried against my shoulder. In return she started kissing the side of my neck, teasing soft, causing me to shiver slightly.

Realising that while I could happily stand like this all night, holding her against me, there were much more pleasant options available to us, all of which involved a bed only a few feet from us.

Leaning back, I looked down at her, causing Brenda to look up at me.

"I want to see you Brenda, all of you. Please let me…" She smiled gently, her lashes fluttering shut as she gently nodded.

I stepped away and moved to the bed, leading her by one hand. Turning I sat down and spread my legs enough to pull Brenda to where she was standing between them, my head level with her breasts. Leaning forward, I could smell her scent, her perfume and the faint traces of her arousal. Smiling to myself, I slowly laid a string of soft kisses across her torso, hearing a soft moan in the quiet of the room.

Reaching her navel, I kissed it gently, before slipping my tongue in, feeling her shiver at the sensation, as a low groan filled the room and Brenda's hands sank into my hair, pressing me into her. I teased and tormented her for a moment, before pulling away and kissing my way up her body. Chancing a look up I could see Brenda's head was thrown back; eyes closed and hear a succession of soft, gentle moans coming from her mouth.

Reaching her breasts I stopped, waiting for her to come back to me. Her head dropped and her eyes opened, staring at me with an almost frightening intensity. Smiling, I locked eyes with her as I leaned to one side and placed a gentle kiss to one hard nipple where it tented the silk of her bra, slowly, gently teasing. Keeping our eyes locked I moved across to the other nipple and did the same, Brenda's eyes never wavering.

Seeing the need there, I leaned back and slid my hands up from her waist to the front of her bra, reaching for the clasp. Brenda suddenly swallowed as I paused, before a single, whispered word reached me.

"Please…" I smiled, slowly unhooking the clasp and opening her bra, revealing two lovely breasts, complete with soft pink aureole and quite remarkably long nipples, they must have stood out almost half an inch, proudly erect and stiff.

Licking my lips I hefted both full breasts in my hands, gently dragging my thumbs over Brenda's nipples as she took a shuddering breath. Keeping my eyes locked on her, I leaned forward, my tongue darting out to make gentle contact with the tip of her nipple, swirling around the end and revelling in the soft, desperate moan that escaped from Brenda. Giving in to the temptation, I closed my lips around the nipple, sucking it into my mouth, circling it with my tongue and toying with it.

Brenda's hands had found their way to my shoulders as she pushed herself into me, I could hear her breathing speeding up, soft pants in the dark. I moved to her other nipple, giving it the same attention, as my fingers gently teased the first, keeping Brenda moaning. I gently pinched it between my fingers and heard Brenda gasp, as a shudder ran through her. Giving in to temptation, I gently took the nipple between my teeth and tugged it gently, sucking at the end.

I was completely unprepared for the reaction, as a gasping moan rang out and Brenda's hands flew to my head, pushing me into her. I looked up to see her face, eyes wide, gasping for air as I realised Brenda's nipples were apparently hot-wired directly to her libido. I paused for a moment, looking up at her, as she slowly calmed. Realising I'd stopped; Brenda looked down at me, her eyes soft and wondering.

"Oh god Sharon, that's so good…" I smiled, enjoying the wondering look on her face.

"It's all for you honey, just let me make you feel good"

I moved back on the bed, gently drawing her to me, to where we were both kneeling on the bed. I kissed her gently, our tongues teasing for a moment before I pulled away.

'Lay down honey, lay back and let me make you feel good" I smiled as she laid back, head on a pillow, as I leaned over her to kiss her again, before working my way down her jawline and throat, then slowly across her clavicle and down onto her chest. As I got closer and closer to her breasts I could hear her little groans and moans get louder, I was working her into a state, she was marvellously aroused.

Gently I positioned myself over her torso, as I lowered my tongue to her right breast, taking the nipple into my mouth and sucking it gently, as Brenda's hands buried themselves in my hair while her low, needy moan filled the room, magic to my ears. I don't know how long I was there, switching from one to the other, using my tongue and fingers to work her nipples, until I could feel her shuddering and trembling under me.

My poor baby was so wound up from all the build-up, plus at least a year of celibacy, that she could probably come just from the attention, but I didn't want that, not yet. I gently slowed the pace, letting her down gently, before I moved up to look her in the face. Her eyes were squeezed shut and she was biting her bottom lip, obviously lost in the sensations.

Finally Brenda opened her eyes, to see me looking down at her, as she gave me a wide smile.

"Hey"

"Hey honey"

"Oh Sharon, that was so good, I was close, so close..."

"I know, but I wanted to take our time, make our first time special" Her smile turned soft and slow.

"Oh god, here with you, how could it possibly be anything else" I felt a huge smile break out on my face at her words, before I heard her next words. "That was wonderful sweetie, I wanna do that to you to" I bit my lip, she certainly sounded eager…

"Brenda honey, are you sure?"

"Oh Sharon, never been surer of anything, I wanna make you feel as good as you made me. Please?" I was realising that denying Brenda anything was going to be difficult, let alone the stuff of my fantasies.

Brenda sat up and leaned in for a kiss, wrapping her arms around me, as we clung together, our tongues exploring and tangling, as I felt her hands fumble at my bra strap, trying to get it undone. I pulled back and smirked at her, getting a pout in return.

"Undoing it on someone else is a bit more difficult isn't it Brenda? Spare a thought for all those poor young men who tried" She giggled a bit,

"I just need lots of practice Sharon, might as well start now. Scoot around sweetie" I smiled as I twisted on the bed, turning my back to her.

I felt her hands slide up my back, leaving a trail of little goose bumps behind, before her fingers found my bra strap, deftly unhooking it. Before I could move, she slid her hands up to my shoulders and slid the straps slowly off, as I moved my arms to let them slide down and off.

Brenda wasn't finished though, snuggling up against me from behind, her knees on each side of my hips, as she moulded her body against mine, her hand pushing my hair to one side as her lips sought out my neck. I couldn't help it, as I let my head fall away, giving her all the access to my neck she needed.

As her lips and tongue moved up my neck I could feel her nipples pressing into my back, hard pointers to her arousal. I groaned softly as she sought out my pulse point, turning into a moan as her hands slipped around me and cupped a breast in each hand.

I could hear a soft noise in my ear, a gentle humming sound, Brenda's hands hefting my breasts, as if measuring their weight, before slowly starting to move over them, slow, wondering, teasing.

I was about to say something encouraging, when her thumbs lightly touched my nipples, rolling across the tip, dragging a gasp from me as she spoke.

"Mmm, they feel different sweetie, nice though" I was about to reply when my mind stuttered as Brenda started rolling the nipples between her fingers, getting a low, drawn out moan as I realised this was Brenda and this was real.

Her mouth returned to my neck as her fingers gently tormented my breasts in a gentle, slow rhythm, as I realised that Brenda must be fondling my breasts the way she did her own when she pleasured herself. That thought dragged another low moan from my throat as she latched onto my neck and sucked the pulse point gently.

I don't know how long we were there like that, as I luxuriated in the warmth of her embrace, the pulses from my nipples and the tingling kisses on my neck, as she slowly worked her way up my neck to my jawline. Finally she reached my earlobe and sucked on it gently for a moment, before running her tongue along the rim of my ear, sending another shudder through me.

"Am I doing it right?" The question slowly penetrated my addled brain.

"Right? Honey, if this is wrong, I ain't gonna survive you doing it right" Her voice was a soft giggle before it turned serious.

"Sharon, I wanna learn to make you happy, can you turn round. Please?" I turned my head towards her, our temples resting together.

"Brenda, just having you here makes me happy; everything about you is making me happy"

"Then let me make you happier" Her hands moved up to my shoulders and pulled gently, encouraging me to turn around. I moved with her and we ended up facing each other, both kneeling. Brenda's eyes dropped to my breasts and she slowly licked her lips. Probably nerves I thought.

"Brenda, you don't have to… It's ok" She looked up at me and shook her head gently.

"No, I loved what you were doing to me and wanna do it to you. I've never done this though, so you have to tell me if I'm doing anything wrong, ok?" I nodded gently, as she reached out and cupped my breasts again, holding them up as if inspecting them, before she slowly leaned forward, her mouth opening and her tongue sliding out to gently lick at a nipple, before drawing it back across the tip.

I stared down at her, the sight of Brenda Leigh Johnson licking my breasts sending a hot jolt right through me, as her eyes fixed on my face, wanting to know if I liked it. Unable to speak, I angled my torso, forcing my nipple closer to her mouth.

Brenda's tongue slid out again, sliding back and forwards, across the tip and back, then circling the hard nub, as I stared into her eyes. Slowly she moved forward, her hot mouth engulfing my nipple, as she gently suckled on it, sucking combined with her tongue teasing the tip to drag a shuddering moan out of me as the vision before me played out.

Without conscious thought my hands sought out her head and shoulder as I gently held her there, staring into her eyes as she stared back,

I was lost in a haze as I realised that this was Brenda doing this, her first time with a woman and she was making gentle love to my nipple. I was starting to pant as I watched her, our eyes locked together, before she gently let the engorged nipple slip out of her mouth, I missed the warmth of her mouth on it. Carefully she leaned in and gently blew across it, the slightly cold breeze sending a shudder through me.

A small smile crossed her face, before she moved across to the other breast and lavished the same gentle attention to it as well. The whole time her eyes were on my face, watching to see that I liked it. Finally I could take no more.

"Honey, that's lovely, but you can be a little rougher with them, use your fingers and teeth if you like" She pulled away for a moment and nodded gently.

"Mine are a bit sensitive, so I didn't want to hurt you"

"Brenda, you're not, trust me, you couldn't" Pulling her lower lip in between white, even teeth, Brenda nodded again, before lowering her mouth to my breast again.

For the next few minutes, Brenda made gentle love to my nipples, switching between, them, using her teeth, fingers, lips, tongue and mouth to keep me floating on cloud nine. She was still too gentle, but it was her first time and truth be told, I didn't care.

This was Brenda, she was here, in my bedroom, almost naked and the visual of my breasts in her mouth, the feel of her mouth on me as we stared at each other was pushing me closer and closer to a climax even without being a little rough. I was making little moaning sounds in the back of my throat, losing myself in the moment, when I felt the first gentle rumblings of an impending climax, a gentle slow one to match her ministrations.

I gently used my hands to pull her away from me, as she looked concerned. Stopping her questions I leaned down and kissed her gently, before pulling her into an embrace, arms around each other, our nipples pressing into each other's chest, as we kissed again.

Finally, I pulled back and looked at her, smiling softly.

"That was wonderful honey, so good" Her mouth widened in a slow smile at my praise. I had to remind myself that this was all new to her, but she'd done a lovely job of it so far.

Now it was time to take it to the next level.

"Brenda, I need you to lay back and let me take off those lovely panties" I saw her look at me, a hesitant look on her face, before she nodded slowly and gently.

I understood that this was the point of no turning back, especially for someone who had never been with a woman before. Brenda was going to have to lay back and spread herself, opening herself to me, letting me be as intimate as it was possible to be with a woman.

I could understand that the thought was a bit daunting, but I tried to be as reassuring as I could, despite the fact that I was desperately aroused and the thought of burying my face in her pussy was almost overwhelming.

I wanted to drive her to a shattering, screaming, overwhelming climax so badly, to be the best she'd ever had, to make damned sure that she forgot anyone who had ever done this for her before, so that she would never ever want anyone else ever again.

I wanted her, I wanted her now and forever and I'd do whatever it took to make her mine.

Brenda looked up at me from under her lashes and smiled gently.

"Please Sharon, I want you. Make love to me please" I smiled at her, as I pulled her close and wrapped her in my arms.

Brenda was here, she wanted me, she was giving herself to me and tonight, my dreams were coming true.

**A/N **I know, I'm a slow tease, well we've been working towards this for 80 chapters, so we might as well take our time.

Thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, favourited and followed Intersecting Lines, your time, your support and your responses are like crack, once you get it, you really can't stop

More to come, before I close out Book 1

Thanks for staying the journey with me.


	81. Chapter 81

**A/N** This story is rated M for a reason, this chapter being one of them.

This chapter contains depictions of consenting adults doing what consenting adults do when they feel like it, so if sexual content isn't your thing, please skip the chapter and move on.

**Brenda and Sharon's first night Part 2**

Brenda's viewpoint

I don't know how long we were there, kneeling on the bed, just wrapped up in each other's arms, kissing. I felt caught between two states, on one hand incredibly peaceful and calm, held in her arms, feeling wanted and cherished and protected, on the other I was almost painfully aroused.

Just being here with Sharon had me in a terrible state. I'd been turned on by the time we got to her home, having her strip me and make love to my breasts had pushed me to the brink of a shattering orgasm, before she'd stopped.

No man had ever spent so much time, lavished so much attention to my breasts, driving me so close to a huge climax. I remembered something Maura had said back at the start of the journey that had led me here with Sharon, that foreplay between women could be as good as sex.

I'd not really believed it, thinking that Maura had been coloured by her love for Jane, tonight Sharon had made me a believer.

When the time had come to return the favour, I'd followed her lead, a little unsure, but looking into her eyes, hearing the sounds I could coax from her, had made me want to do it all night. To have a woman like Sharon, composed, controlled, powerful Sharon, start to come apart under me, I'd never felt anything like it.

It had made me feel wonderful and sexy, to have her under my spell, to make her feel so good, to shatter her into a million pieces and help put her back together afterwards, nothing could be better.

Sharon pulled her head back, cruelly pulling her mouth out of kissing reach, I wanted to do that all night, but I opened my eyes to see her smiling at me.

"I want you to lie back Brenda, I want to make you feel good" I couldn't help it, the words just tumbled out.

"Oh god Sharon, everything you do makes me feel good" Her smile widened as her voice dropped.

"Oh honey, this'll be even better, trust me" I just stared into her eyes for a moment, before nodding, feeling myself react to her tone, my body was aching for her, the way she stared at my painfully hard nipples told me that she was aware of it too.

"C'mon honey, lay back" Sharon guided me back onto the bed, my head and shoulders propped up on a nest of pillows, as she leaned in for a kiss, thrusting her tongue deep into my mouth when I opened for her and making me groan at the welcome intrusion.

Pulling back, she smirked as I tried to follow her mouth, gently holding me down with a hand on my shoulder, before moving down next to me, kneeling and taking my nipple into her hot mouth again, dragging a gasp from me as she raked the sensitive tip between her tongue and teeth.

My hand automatically flew to her hair, pushing her into me as my back arched, forcing my breasts into her, I wanted her mouth there again, all night long, I wanted her to bring me to the climax she'd denied me before. As she slid her mouth away from my nipple I couldn't help the little gasp of frustration as she gently chuckled.

"Plenty of time for that later honey, all the time in the world" Her head dipped again, as she kissed and licked across my tummy, before it dipped again into my navel, making me squirm in delicious agony at her teasing touch.

Finally she stopped, making me slowly drift down from the high I'd been on, to open my eyes and look down at her, to see her watching me, gently smiling. I smiled back; everything she did made me feel so good.

"Hey honey, I need you to lift your hips" Her finger hooked inside the elastic of my G string. "This is lovely and I want to see you wearing it again, so I don't want to stretch it dragging it down"

I swallowed, both at what she was going to do and the promise to see me in them again. I was also embarrassed that they were quite sodden, the result of her attention all night. I nodded and levered my hips up, allowing Sharon to slide them off my hips and down my legs then, as I let my hips drop and lifted my legs together, Sharon slid them off me.

I was about to say something, when Sharon lifted the scrap of fabric to her face and inhaled, taking in the smell of my arousal. I bit my lip, acutely aware of how wet I'd been, still was.

"Mmm, god Brenda…smells like sex" I could feel my cheeks flush with embarrassment.

"I'm sorry Sharon…" Her eyes flicked up to mine as shock registered on her face.

"Brenda, don't, just don't. You smell like sex and that's the hottest thing ever" She moved up to the top of the bed, still holding the scrap of lingerie. "Honey, have you ever smelled yourself, really smelled yourself, without trying to hide it under perfumes and scents and deodorants?"

She held the panties up to her face and took another deep breath in through her nose, smiling, before holding it out to me.

"Smell it honey, smell it" I gingerly took the tiny piece of fabric, suddenly aware of just how damp it was.

"Smell it Brenda" I carefully brought it up to my face, as a spicy, subtle smell hit my nose.

"Do you have any idea what that smell is doing to me?" I stared at her over the silk as she spoke. "To smell you on that, to know I made you wet, I got you aroused, that you're like that for me?"

Her voice was low and throaty and sent shivers through me. She stared at me in open appraisal as one hand unconsciously toyed with her nipple, tweaking and tugging it.

"Oh my fucking god Brenda, I wanted you before, now I need you, so much" She closed her eyes and moaned gently, low and soft as I watched Sharon's face. I thought I'd seen all sides of Sharon, but this was a sensual, erotic and incredibly turned on Sharon. It was so hot it burned.

Slowly opening her eyes, Sharon reached out for the panties, pulling them from my fingers and bringing them to her nose, where she inhaled deeply, moaning again.

Right then and there I decided that noise might have been one of the sexiest things I'd ever heard. Just hearing her make that sound made me even wetter. I don't know how but it just did. She casually dropped them on the bed, before looking at me. The need in her voice underlay her teasing words.

"If you smell that good, I can't wait to taste you" The certainty in her voice shook me to the core, and I felt my pussy clench in sympathy. With that she moved back down the bed and looked back up at me with a smile. ""C'mon honey, open up for me"

I swallowed as I took in the anticipation on her face, before spreading my legs apart, incredibly aware of how open I was before her eyes. I could feel the slightly cool air on the moisture coating my core, sending the very slightest chill through me. Not helped by the sight of Sharon staring at my pussy, before licking her lips slowly, a gesture that sent a shiver right through me.

Sharon moved between my legs, kneeling there for a second as she looked at me, before tapping my knee.

"Lift your knees up Brenda and spread a bit wider" I swallowed but did as she said, alternating between heat and embarrassment as she stared at me. "So pretty" I barely heard the whispered words, I doubt I was supposed to, but the smile they brought to my face was instant. Sharon was seeing me as intimately as anyone ever had and thought I was pretty.

As I watched, she slid onto her stomach and shimmied closer, till her face was between my thighs, her gaze intent. Looking up and catching my eyes, she turned her head a little and drew her tongue up the inside of my thigh, catching some of the moisture that had leaked there. Obviously enjoying the moment, she repeated the action on the other thigh, only higher, closer, more arousing, never letting go of my eyes.

Now I realised why she'd set up the pillows like this, to support me; so that I could watch her as she went down on me, so I could see her pleasure as she consumed me. I looked into those lust-darkened eyes and moaned in anticipation, Sharon was going to make me watch as she ate me out, so I could see how much she enjoyed making me come.

"Oh honey, I've wanted to do this for so long, this week's been torture" I nodded, unable to form words as I could feel the lightest touch of her breath on me, the anticipation was killing me. Sharon looked up and lifted an eyebrow. "Ready honey?" I nodded again, unable to speak. Her chuckle was swift and low.

"Cat got your tongue Brenda?" God knows what my face looked like, as I tried to say something, but whatever I was going to say is wiped away, I'm left completely incoherent as Sharon's tongue gently flicks out and slides up my labia's lips, sending an electric jolt up my body. I'm dimly aware of my head falling back and a low groan filling the room, mine.

The sensations rippling through me are so intense it takes me a while to come back to earth. It takes even longer before I can bring myself together enough to look down at her, but the sight when I do is so worth it.

Sharon's directing her full determination and concentration into giving me the best oral experience of my life, without a doubt she's succeeding beyond my wildest dreams. Her best is like nothing I've ever had before, something special, something wonderful.

Most guys approach it as something to be endured, to get you into the mood to suck them off and let them fuck you. A few do it because they like to give you pleasure, to hear you react, some even see it as a challenge, to dominate you orally. Sharon approached it like lovemaking.

It started gentle and slowly increased in speed and depth and intensity. I could see her eyes locked on mine, as she slowly dragged her tongue up the length of my labia, collecting as much of the wetness there as she could, before letting her tongue slide back into her mouth slowly, her eyes closing for a moment, obviously savouring the taste. She was putting on a show and it had me mesmerised.

She started out licking and flicking with the tip of her tongue, before dragging her tongue up and down the length of me, sending shivers and shocks throughout my body and mind, dragging me towards a climax way too quickly.

When her tongue suddenly speared deeply inside me, penetrating inside, I convulsed. I could feel the first twitches and rumbles of an orgasm coming, a big one. That didn't stop Sharon though; she speared me again, driving another convulsion through me

Pulling her tongue back, she started kissing and sucking the lips of my pussy, kissing it like it was my mouth, as her tongue teased and twisted and thrust. The sensations were overwhelming me, as Sharon stared back at me, she could see I was getting close.

Sharon slowed her ministrations as I dimly realised I was begging her, begging her to bring me off.

"Please, Sharon, please, so close, please…"

Slowing to a halt Sharon smiled up at me as I stared back at her, why had she stopped?

"Why? Sharon, please, why?"

"Making it last honey, I want this one to be special" I moaned, why was she being so cruel?

"Please, I need it, please…" I could feel the climax receding even as we spoke.

"I know you do honey, I'm going to get you there, but we need to take our time" I groaned in frustration, as Sharon chuckled again. I couldn't help it.

"You're a bitch Sharon, you know that?" Her chuckle was even louder.

"Yep" I was about to say something even snarkier when Sharon's mouth dropped back to my pussy, stilling anything I might have said.

This time Sharon went straight for my clit, lashing it with her tongue, causing me to moan and buck under her, as the sensations overwhelmed me, my head thrashing and hips bucking under her. My climax may have receded, but at this rate it was going to come screaming back bigger than ever.

The room filled with my gasps, moans and cries, as Sharon attacked my clit with her lips, tongue and teeth, the last causing me to scream her name. Just as I was getting close enough to feel the first shakes of my orgasm, Sharon stopped, just stopped cold.

"FUCK!" My frustrated scream reverberated round the room.

"Easy Brenda, take it easy" I growled at her, I could feel the lips peeling back, baring my teeth.

"That's easy for you to say" Sharon looked back at me, smiling gently.

"Hey honey, I want your first to be something amazing"

"It was going to be. But Then YOU **STOPPED!**" I glared at her or tried to, to be honest my head was still fuzzy from how close she'd brought me. "Why are you being so cruel?"

"I have an ulterior motive Brenda, you taste so good I don't want to stop" With that she gently blew cool air across my heated core, bringing me further and further down from my impending climax. I could feel it drifting away, dissipating like steam on the wind.

"Is this you getting back at me for all those times I gave you problems Sharon, cause if it is, I hate you" Aware I wasn't serious Sharon just chuckled, her eyes dancing in the dim light.

"No, I just want you to never forget tonight, I want you to always remember our first time" I stared down at her shocked, Sharon, a hopeless romantic, who would have guessed? Overwhelmed, I reached down and caressed her cheek.

"Oh Sharon, sweetie, I could never forget this, no matter what" Sharon got a soft look on her face, before turning her head to kiss my palm, then leaned her head against it. We lay there for a while, just feeling the moment. Finally I felt I had to exert some authority here.

"But if you want me to remember you as anything other than a complete bitch Sharon Raydor, you'd better finish what you started next time. Otherwise I promise I will keep bringing this up whenever we fight in the future" In the face of what I had to admit was a pretty weak argument, Sharon just smirked at me.

"Third time's the charm honey" I looked into her eyes.

"Promise?" She smiled back.

"Promise" I couldn't help it, I grinned at her.

"Then by all means, get to it girl"

Sharon smiled before her head dipped and she attacked my clit, causing my head to slam back into the pillows. She wasn't kidding, Sharon was bringing me up a lot faster than before, I could feel the rush already starting to build.

"Brenda honey, look at me, c'mon, look at me" I forced my eyes open and head forward, to see her staring at me. Once she could see she had my attention, she gently slid an index finger into her mouth, sliding it in and out, coating it with saliva. It was breathtaking, realising what she was going to do. Not that the lubrication was needed, I was sopping wet, but Sharon was doing it for effect.

"Hmmm, let's start with one" she mused. "Just to get you ready"

With that she moved the finger out of sight, before I felt it slide inside me, it felt so good, made me shiver, until she twisted it, curling it up and around inside me, then it felt great.

"Oh fucking god Sharon yes" With a small smile at my words, Sharon started sliding it in and out, gentle and slow, as her lips descended back to my clit.

The sensations she was generating were amazing, my body felt like it was on fire, the attention from her tongue plus the gentle sawing motion dragging me towards a huge climax. Sharon paused for a moment, making me realise she'd stopped, as she gently slipped her finger out. As I looked down at her, a question forming, Sharon slipped the first finger into her mouth and licked it clean, the look of pleasure on her face sending a jolt through me.

"Oh Brenda, you taste so good, I can't get enough of you" I stared at her, taking in the obvious pleasure she was getting from my taste, before she slid a second finger into her mouth, undoubtedly mimicking exactly what she was about to do with me.

I lay there, unable to speak, the sight of Sharon sucking her fingers, sliding them in and out of her mouth, the knowledge of what she was doing to me, the eroticism of her action, turning my mind to sexually soaked goo.

With a satisfied smile, Sharon pulled the fingers from her mouth, before reaching out with her tongue and giving them a final lick, all the while her eyes were locked on mine, obviously aware of what she was doing to me, how what I was seeing was affecting me.

As I stared, she curled her wrist over and slowly slid first one finger and then the second inside me, stretching me out.

"Oh god you're tight Brenda, all that time going without sex's made you tight. Don't worry though, we'll soon have you opened up" The matter of fact delivery, the certainty, was doing my head in. '_Oh yes, your tap has a leak, but we'll get it fixed_'. It wasn't a promise; it was a statement, an expression of fact. Same here, Sharon was going to open me, fix me and fuck me open for her.

I was staring at her, as her head dipped again, taking my clit into her mouth, as she started scissoring her fingers, slowly and gently at first, then more forcefully. Combined with her oral assault, the words, the visuals, I could feel a monumental climax coming, one the like of which I hadn't had in years.

My breath was coming in pants and gasps; my hips rolling into her, I was moaning and crying out her name, entreaties, begging for her to bring me off. I couldn't look at her anymore, my head rolled back and my eyes closed, as my hands unconsciously sought my nipples, twisting and tugging at them, the spasms from them a compliment to the much larger spasms Sharon was sending racing through me.

Just as I felt myself start to shudder in the opening throes of a massive climax, Sharon curled her fingers up and into me, swirling in small circles as she sought my sweet spot, as her teeth gently clenched onto my clit, sending sweet torturous lightning racing through me.

I thought I was ready for the rush when it hit, but this wasn't a wave, it was a tsunami, it swept through me, over me and carried me away, my body thrashing and spasming, despite Sharon's best efforts to hold me down, the last thing I remembered was my voice screaming in the quiet room, screaming her name, before everything went black.

When I finally became aware of what was going on, I found myself curled into Sharon's embrace. She'd moved to sit next to me against the bed head and I was lying with my head on my chest, cradled in her arms against her chest, as she gently rocked me and laid gentle kisses to the top of my head.

I felt safe, protected, cherished and overwhelmed; Sharon had carried me higher than I'd ever been. I hadn't blacked out from an orgasm like that in years. Finally feeling myself able to talk coherently I lifted my head slowly, to see Sharon smiling down at me.

"Oh Sharon…" My voice was so weak. Her smile got even wider.

"Hey you" A lazy, happy and contented smile spread across my face as my voice returned to something like normal.

"That was…wow" She chuckled happily, before hugging me to her.

"I just wanted to make you happy" I smiled even wider as my mind started working again.

"Oh you did, mission accomplished Sharon" She frowned, obviously trying to work out what I meant. "You wanted me to remember our first time. I won't ever forget that" Her grin was swift and her laugh rich and happy.

"Well, now I've got you, I don't want to lose you" That thought made me all warm inside.

"No chance of that ever happening. Oh my god, that was so good"

"I'm glad you liked it" I smiled happily.

"Liked it, hell yeah" Her smile got even wider.

"Thank you honey" I looked at her for a moment as I didn't even try and keep the surprise from my face.

"Why on earth are you thanking me Sharon? I should be the one thanking you, I haven't come like that for ages, years actually" I smiled, fascinated by the woman in front of me, in all her beauty. Her voice changed, softer, lower.

"Thank you for letting me be your first Brenda" I smiled up at her, as I felt an overwhelming feeling of tenderness for the woman holding me. Any other woman could have been my first lesbian experience, but it was Sharon who'd made it incredible.

I reached for her and pulled her head down to me, as we kissed for what seemed endless moments, as we lost ourselves in each other. I could taste something spicy on her lips and tongue, before I suddenly realised I could taste myself on her, something I'd never done before. The eroticism of what we were doing hit me hard, as I pushed my tongue harder into her, spurred on by the memory of what she'd done to me.

Finally, we pulled apart and just cuddled together, quiet with our thoughts. I looked into her eyes and felt a wave of affection wash over me as I realised how much I owed to Sharon. She'd been there with me through so much, for so long my only real friend outside the squad and my only female friend here in LA.

Sharon had been there for me through so much, had my back through so many bad episodes, the Goldman witch hunt, the Turrel Baylor aftermath, Taylor, Pope, so much, I owed her so much and that was before she took a chance with us, with our hearts.

I doubt I could ever repay her for all her kindness, for everything Sharon had done, including tonight. I was here, blissfully happy, held in a beautiful woman's arms, Sharon's arms, because of her bravery and love.

I doubted a lifetime of effort could ever repay her for all she'd done, the happiness we had here tonight, but that didn't mean I wasn't going to start.

Slowly I disentangled myself from her arms, ending up on my hands and knees as I leaned in to kiss her again, before pulling away. I looked at her, so beautiful in the dim light and I knew I had to do this.

"Sharon, my beautiful Sharon. I wanna make you feel good too" Sharon immediately realised what I was saying, as I used her own words against her. Sharon bit her lip, obviously torn between wanting it and trepidation, that it might be too much too soon.

"It's ok Brenda, you don't have to…"

"I know I don't, but I want to" I could see Sharon was uncertain, so I leaned in and kissed her again. "Please, let me…"

Biting her lip, Sharon stared at me, before nodding slowly. I moved back and patted the pillows.

"C'mon Sharon, same spot, that way you can watch me" I saw her breath hitch as she realised what I wanted, I wanted her to watch me do this, to understand how much it meant to me to make love to her the same way she had.

She scooted over, as I leaned in to kiss her again, before kissing my way down her throat and onto her décolletage. She was so soft, her skin was warm and soft and smooth and smelled of perfume and her own scent, so different from a man's body, all gentle curves instead of hard angles, soft skin rather than hard muscle, it was all different and lovely and it felt so damned good to feel her under me.

I gently kissed both nipples, before determinedly moving onwards, not allowing myself to be distracted by the enticing sounds I could coax from Sharon with my mouth on them. Instead I moved down onto her tummy, marvelling again at how soft and smooth she was. Despite her age, Sharon's tummy was taunt and tight.

"Oh sweetie, how do you do it?" I heard a low chuckle, then a small gasp as I stabbed my tongue into her navel, returning the favour from earlier.

"Two hundred sit ups every morning honey, I've gotta look good for you" My eyes flicked up to hers, as I swirled my tongue around inside her navel, making her groan, before I lifted my head to talk.

"Oh you do Sharon, very good indeed. I appreciate all your hard work" Sharon's hand reached over and gently stroked my hair, then down over my cheek.

"Then it's all been worth it" I smiled at her words, the warmth and care and tenderness in her voice, before I turned my head to kiss her palm. I moved slowly off her navel and down towards a patch of dark hair. Looking up I caught her eyes as I tapped her thigh.

"C'mon sweetie, open up" I could see her uncertainty, no doubt wondering if I was ready for this, my first night with a woman and I was asking to go down on her. At that hesitation I had to reassure her.

"I want to Sharon, I want to hear you under me, I need to taste you, feel you, make love to you, the same way you did to me" I saw her mouth form a small 'o' of surprise before she slowly nodded, her legs moving open, revealing her to me.

I looked down, as the scent of her arousal hit me, something sharp and tangy. I swallowed a little, before moving to kneel between her knees, looking at her splayed open for me. My eyes travelled up and down her body, before settling at the junction of her legs. Slowly I dropped to my elbows and knees, as I leaned in closer. I could see Sharon's thighs were glistening with moisture, she was obviously turned on and waiting for me, the gentle scent reaching my nose told me as much.

I leaned in closer, examining her, fascinated by her pussy. Her curls were neatly trimmed, letting me see her clearly. Her pussy was neat and glistening with need, the lips a little puffy with her arousal. Curious, I reached out and gently touched her, just a fingertip, feeling her dewy softness under my finger's fleeting touch. I slowly ran the fingertip along the line of her crease, fascinated by the wet heat there.

Leaning in, I gazed at her, seeing the moisture there, before gently sniffing the subtle scent of her, tangy and new and something outside anything I'd smelled before. Fascinated, I leaned in again and inhaled through my nose, getting used to the scent, deciding I could easily learn to like it. I wondered what it tasted like, would it taste as unusual as it smelled.

I reached out and gently ran my fingertip along her folds again, gathering some of the moisture on my finger, before bringing it to my mouth, tentatively sliding the tip between my lips and sucking gently, tasting her, tasting Sharon. The taste was a little tangy, a little tart with a hint of spice. I sat there a moment, before running a finger through the moisture, collecting more before sucking it clean, closing my eyes as I savoured the taste, different from anything I'd tasted before, but not bad, in fact it had hints of flavours I found interesting, enticing even.

Wanting to taste more, I ran two fingertips along Sharon's crease, gathering even more, before bringing both fingers to my mouth, sucking and licking them clean with my eyes closed, concentrating on the taste, coming to the realisation that like anything new and unusual and tart, you just had to get used to it. In fact as I became familiar with it I decided I really could find myself liking the taste. Still with my eyes closed, I licked my lips, in case I had any on them, to be interrupted by a low, needy moan.

My eyes flashed open to lock onto Sharon's, hers were wide and dark, her hands playing with her nipples, her face filled with longing. I'd been so lost in my own discovery that I'd almost forgotten Sharon was there, god knows what she was thinking.

"Oh fucking god Brenda, don't tease, please don't tease me" I blinked, Sharon was begging me? Then it hit me, while I'd been treating her like some sort of taste test, she'd been watching and the visuals must have hit her hard.

"Sorry sweetie, just enjoying tasting you" If anything her eyes widened even more, as she whispered to me.

"Please…" Smiling to myself, I leaned in and examined her even closer, seeing the lips slightly puffy, the blood flowing into them as part of her arousal, her heat. Seeing her so close, so open to me and remembering how much I'd loved what she'd done to me, I mentally shrugged. '_Here we go_'.

I gently leaned in and let my tongue flick out, making contact with her, tasting her, gathering her moist heat on my tongue and bringing it into my mouth, savouring the tangy, tart taste. The moan from Sharon was immediate as she stared at me. Smothering a smile I leaned in again, drawing my tongue up her, gathering more of her onto my tongue, before pulling it into my mouth and savouring it.

The taste was nothing terrible, it was different, but not bad at all, in fact I could get used to tasting it a lot, especially if it meant I could keep Sharon making the sounds she was now, as she stared at me, her mouth open as she panted softly, lost in what I was doing to her.

I had to say I was a bit scared, Sharon was a hard act to follow damn her, she always was a perfectionist, right down to eating me out to a mind blowing orgasm. I wanted to make her feel as good as I had, to make her shatter and let me hold her as she shook and trembled.

Realising I couldn't put it off any longer, I slid myself down onto my forearms and leaned my mouth in, my tongue reaching out to slide up and down her lips, feeling her arousal coating my tongue, my lips and even my nose and cheeks, Sharon was soaking wet, wet for me.

Hearing her groan, I slid my tongue over her again, sliding it gently between her lips, feeling the gentle pressure on each side of my tongue, as I gently forced my way further in, I could feel little tremors and shivers running through her, I must be doing something right.

Feeling a little emboldened, I slid my tongue up her length, getting another moan, which only made me more intent on making Sharon happy. I slid my hands forward, using my fingers to gently pry her lips apart, opening her to me. For a moment, I just lay there, staring.

Until I'd looked up a couple of pretty graphic porn videos on the net a few weeks back, I'd never seen one this close before. It was pink and glistening, with her entrance visible, I was fascinated and slowly drew my finger along the inner wall of the labia, feeling its soft, wet texture under my fingertip.

I suddenly realised that Sharon was speaking, she was begging me to touch her, taste her, to please her, I looked up and caught her eyes with mine, before quite deliberately leaning in and running my tongue right up the length of her labia and right into the entrance to her, seeing her shoulders lift off the pillows as she arced at my touch.

I smiled at the feel under my tongue, it wasn't something I was familiar with, but it was hot and wet and soft and I could see what I was doing to her.

I mimicked Sharon's actions earlier, curling my tongue and stabbing it as deep as I could inside her, drawing a moaning gasp, so sweet to my ears I had to do it over and over again, feeling the walls of her clutching at my tongue. My face was liberally coated with her juices but I didn't care, all that mattered was getting my face as far into as I could, so I could penetrate her with my tongue, to fuck her with it and drive her mad.

Hearing Sharon's continuous moaning, as her body started to shake, I pulled back and watched as she slowly stilled from the lack of attention, her eyes finally opening to stare down at me.

"Did you stop as payback? I didn't think you were so cruel Brenda" I smiled happily.

"Not cruel Sharon, I just wanted you to have as big one as I did" Her head fell back on the pillow.

"You're gonna kill me Brenda, you know that right?" I snickered, happy to have given her just a little of her own medicine.

"Probably not, but we'll have to see" With that I leaned in again and started running my tongue up and down her labia, before sucking each lip in turn into my mouth and worrying at it. Moving up and down I could hear Sharon's breath speeding up again, as the sensations hit her.

I smiled to myself, before moving up closer and reaching forward, pulling her lips apart and exposing the hood of her clitoris to me. Pausing for a moment, I swallowed gently, before running the tip of my tongue over it, back and forward, around and round, as Sharon started to squirm and gently thrust her hips under me.

I could feel her clit as it extended from the hood, allowing me to swirl my tongue around it, before gently wrapping my lips around the clit and sucking on it, feeling Sharon thrash as I did.

Feeling her start to come undone under me, I was struck with a flash of inspiration, and pulled back for a moment, so that I could slide a finger deep inside her, feeling the slick wet walls clench around it as she spasmed. All I could hear was Sharon's moans and cries and desperate panting, her eyes locked onto me as her hands played with her breasts.

Realising she could take more I pulled my finger out and then slid both the index and middle finger in together, back into her wet velvet heat, as Sharon cried out my name. I could feel her clenching on my fingers her climax rushing towards her.

Locking eyes with her, I lowered my head back to her clit, flicking it with my tongue, as I started sawing my fingers in and out of her. Sharon's eyes were wide, staring at me as she started to shake and tremble. Sharon was incoherent, moaning constantly as her head fell back on the pillows, as she gave herself to her climax.

Knowing it was about to hit, I leaned forward and took her clit into my mouth, sucking on it and lashing the tip with my tongue, as Sharon exploded under me. I'd expected a big one, but Sharon thrashed like an epileptic, limbs flailing, as I held on while she convulsed under me.

To say I was shocked was an understatement, Sharon had come undone like I had, I could see her chest heaving as she lay sprawled across the bed.

I was both proud and a little shocked; I'd made Sharon Raydor lose control in the best possible way on my first time. I figured it had been a long time for her too, plus she'd wanted me for a long while, to finally get what she wanted, well that had probably pushed her over the edge. Still, I was pretty pleased with myself.

Realising she wasn't going to be terribly coherent, I pulled myself together, before scrambling up the bed to lie next to her.

Looking down, I could see she was really wasted, but it didn't stop her from smiling up at me lazily as I snuggled up against her.

"Hey Brenda"

"Hiya sweetie"

"That was amazing"

"Hey Sharon, it was pretty amazing for me too"

"So that mean you're hanging round?" I laughed, she was a bit sleepy.

"Looks like" She smiled softly and snuggled into me, seeking the warmth, her voice slow and sleepy.

"Good, wanna do that lots more" I snuggled right back, as we curled up in each other's arms.

"Me too Sharon, me too" I looked down, to see she was asleep. The sight brought a smile too my face, before I let sleep claim me too, happy in her arms.


	82. Chapter 82

**A/N** This story is rated M for a reason, this chapter being one of them.

This chapter contains depictions of consenting adults doing what consenting adults do when they feel like it, so if sexual content isn't your thing, please skip the chapter and move on.

**Brenda and Sharon's first night Part 3**

Sharon's viewpoint

I awoke from what must have been a post-orgasmic power nap, to find that Brenda wasn't there. For a split second I felt a momentary panic, before I saw the glow under the door of the adjoining bathroom door and relaxed, the tension dissipating.

I lay there for a moment, soaking in the reality, I'd just fucked Brenda Leigh Johnson, and she'd done a more than acceptable job of fucking me right back. I felt just the tiniest soreness inside me, which surprised me, but I rationalised that I hadn't properly exercised those particular muscles for some time and I needed to get them back in training.

I smirked into my pillow, thinking I hadn't looked forward to an exercise regime so happily well… ever. Just then the door to the bathroom opened and I was treated to the tantalising sight of Brenda's naked silhouette outlined in the door, bringing a smile to my face before she extinguished the light.

I rolled onto my side as she padded back to bed.

"Oh Sharon, you're awake"

"Yep, I missed you when I woke"

"Oh, I'm sorry sweetie, did I wake you? I just had to go" I could hear the regret in her voice as she slid onto the bed next to me.

"I'm not unhappy, just missed you. C'mere" I held my arms out and she happily scooted into my embrace. "Mmm, that's much better" I could hear the giggles just below the surface in her voice.

"I never figured you for a snuggler Sharon"

"Oh, I'm hurt. Why not?" She leaned in to kiss me.

"Scary Commander Raydor, wearer of the patented power pants suits, a secret snuggler? Most of the LAPD wouldn't believe it and the rest would think it's too scary to contemplate. That's a good thing by the way"

"Is that so? Why exactly?"

"Means I get to have you all to myself" She leaned in for another kiss as I smiled at that thought.

We just lay there for a while, kissing, before I slowly rolled her onto her back and slid slightly down her body, allowing access to her neck, kissing and nibbling at her jaw and throat, bringing a low sound of approval from Brenda. I felt her hands trace patterns up my back before burying themselves in my hair.

"I always wondered if it'd be soft" I paused to look at her, visible in the light bleeding in from the kitchen.

"Hmm?"

"Your hair; I used to wonder if it was as soft as it looked. It always looks lovely" I smiled, it seemed as if we were in 'talk' mode, rather than 'sex' mode, not that I minded, we'd certainly given 'sex' mode a decent workout already tonight and there'd be time for more later.

Grabbing hold of both her arms I rolled onto my back, pulling her on top of me, where she happily cuddled into my embrace.

"I used to wonder about yours too, especially when it was full of curls. It'd bounce and shine and I wanted to shove my hands in it and feel it as I kissed you" I buried one hand in it and luxuriated in its softness, making her purr a little as I massaged her scalp.

"How long had you wanted to kiss me?"

"I'd thought about it for almost a year, on and off. Never thought it would ever move beyond an idle fantasy. I thought you were relentlessly straight, so I was wasting my time even thinking about it"

"I was relentlessly straight Sharon, until I realised that you were flirting with me" I snickered.

"And here I was thinking I was being discreet, didn't take you long to work it out, did it?"

"The following night actually, after we met for coffee, I'd noticed you were different at the party but put that down to you being happy and relaxed. But you were still like that the following night and I realised that something had changed" She leaned in and kissed my throat. "Thank you"

"For what, risking our friendship flirting with a straight woman?" She giggled.

"No, for taking a chance on making us both happy, you were very brave" I snorted.

"More like frustrated really, I looked around at my life and realised I wanted to be happy again. I was only really happy when I was catching up with you; you were my only real friend in the LAPD. Everyone else just saw the wicked witch of FID" I felt her arms tighten around me as I spoke.

"Not everyone, Jane, Maura, Natalie and Anastasia are your friends too and, well I learned to appreciate all that you are, long before we… changed" Changed? I smiled at that as she kept speaking.

"Besides, I think I was only relentlessly straight because the right offer, from the right person, hadn't come along"

"Oh, you'd never contemplated sleeping with another woman?"

"No, but I needed to have my eyes opened. You did that, you started the process, our friends kicked me into gear" I frowned at that.

"Yeah, I was going to ask about that. They were all very supportive of us getting together. Right from the get go, they were encouraging me at the party" I could feel her hair move under my chin as she nodded.

"Once I realised what was happening, I was pretty unsure of what would happen, so I went and saw a doctor" A doctor? I was about to say something when she spoke again.

"So I went to the only doctor I knew who could help me, Maura Isles"

"Ah, I see" Brenda nodded again.

"She had the experience to point me in the right direction. She was very precise, very analytical, but also very compassionate and supportive"

"In other words, everything you'd expect from her" Brenda giggled.

"Yep. She got me to consider it from the viewpoint that if everything was exactly the same, but you were a man, we wouldn't be even having the discussion. So the only issue I really had was that you were a woman" I thought about that, it did make sense.

"Maura also said that she wanted me to be happy, and that you were my best opportunity to be happy and loved, that's why she had provided her blessing to what you were doing." I smiled; it was just what Brenda needed to be told.

"So what else did she say?"

"That I go get some other opinions, by talking to each of the others"

"And how did that go?"

"Well Anastasia explained how Natalie's love had helped her recover from a deep emotional trauma. She also said that I wanted to be happy, that you wanted to be happy and we could be happy together" I smiled at that; it was also exactly what Brenda had needed to hear. Unaware of what I was thinking, Brenda continued.

"Also to not overthink the whole sex part, just go with what felt good, we would learn what worked for us together" I definitely needed to thank Anastasia.

"What about Jane?"

"She told me that she had never had a gay thought in her life before Maura arrived in her life. But the love she had with Maura convinced her that the name was just a label, that what they had was too precious to be constrained by what other people might think or say"

"All sound advice"

"Yes, she also said that no matter what happened between us, they would remain our friends, separately and together, but that she really hoped she got to see us making out by the pool the next time they had a party" I laughed, that sounded very much like Jane, very straight forward and to the point. Brenda laughed as well; I could feel it through my breastbone. I owed Jane a thank you as well.

"And what about Natalie; what was her advice to you?"

"Oh my god Sharon, that woman is, when she wants to be, shamelessly outrageous"

"Oh, I thought she was the soul of discretion?"

"Only when she wants to be Sharon, this wasn't work so she was quite happy to tell me what I could look forward to"

"What, happiness, comfort, someone to be there for you, that sort of thing?"

"No, she described, in some detail, half a dozen of the things we could do to each other to make us scream" I lay there stunned, before I could finally force myself to speak.

"Oh"

"Yes, oh"

"How did that make you feel, embarrassed?"

"A little, it also made me feel quite… aroused. That woman has away with words, it's why she's so good at her job" I nodded slowly, it would have to be a core skill for what she did.

"When she wasn't describing things that made me want to squirm, she was telling me that she considered you very, very lucky to have the chance to be my first" I raised an eyebrow at that thought.

"Oh, did she now?"

"Yes, she also told me that I was incredibly lucky to have you as my teacher" I smiled.

"Well, that I can agree with"

"Modest too sweetie" I smiled.

"I try" I could hear the smile in her voice as she continued.

"She also said one more thing. That we were going to the last person either of us ever sought out, as she saw that we could be everything we ever needed in someone, the same as Jane and Maura and Anastasia and her were for each other" I frowned a little.

"That's a big call, given we've only just got past the no clothes stage" Brenda gave me a quick squeeze.

"Do you think she's wrong?" I lay there for a moment, thinking about it, long enough for Brenda to push herself up on her elbows to look at me, concern shading her voice. "Sharon, are you ok?"

"I'm fine honey, I was just thinking about it. I think she may be right, this just feels so right, so comfortable and good that I don't want to contemplate anyone else" Brenda stretched forward and placed a soft, sweet kiss on my lips, before sliding back down to her previous position laying on me cradled in my arms.

"Me neither, I've not been this happy in so many years and the whole sex with a woman thing is a lot easier than I ever thought it would be"

"Well what did you think it would be?"

"I don't know, certainly different from a guy, although Natalie was kind enough to point out that lack of the correct anatomical equipment was no impediment to getting bent over and fucked till I screamed for mercy" I shivered at the image that suddenly appeared in my mind.

"What exactly did Natalie tell you Brenda?"

"She told me that a woman could give me everything a man could, and more besides. If I needed comfort and support, well a woman did it better than most men ever could. If I needed soft and loving, then a woman's intimate knowledge of female anatomy was a definite advantage, especially with two beautiful, extremely intelligent women bent on pleasing each other"

Brenda placed a kiss on my chest while giving me another quick squeeze, which I happily returned.

"Finally, she said that if I needed a good hard fucking, well a woman could fuck me raw all night long" I lay there for a moment, realising that Natalie had actually paved the way for me, by making Brenda open to every type of sex she might encounter with me.

"Well, I must thank her for that; it seems I have a lot to live up to"

"I'm looking forward to finding out together, although there is one question I do have sweetie" I was instantly alert to her teasing tone.

"Yes?"

"Where do you keep the toys, in the bedside table?"

I levered myself up to look down at her.

"What?" Damn, I could hear the surprise in my voice. Brenda smiled sweetly at me.

"Well, isn't that where you said lesbians keep them?" I opened my mouth to say something and then closed it again. Brenda said nothing, just kept that sweet smile aimed at me as I worked out what to say.

"I do keep one there Brenda, which I used to provide relief when I needed it. What exactly am I supposed to keep there?" Brenda rolled off me to one side and started counting them off on her fingers.

"Well, Natalie suggested that an appropriate lesbian tool kit would probably include two vibrators so we could get each other off together, a strap-on for when we needed a really hard fuck, a double dildo for mutual satisfaction, a blindfold and a set of restraints for some bondage play, plus maybe a paddle and feather, some massage oil and whatever else we liked using"

I didn't know whether to be appalled or turned on. Looking at Brenda I could see her grinning in the dim light. Well so much for her maybe being scared about the full gamut of lesbian sex.

"I think Natalie and Anastasia must have a very active sex life, I hope they haven't raised expectations that I might have trouble filling"

"That's ok Sharon, what we don't have already, we can always pick up later" Oh god. I had visions of us pushing a shopping cart through an adult store, piling it high with toys of all shapes and sizes.

"Brenda, are suggesting that a Deputy Chief and a Commander in the LAPD should go trolling adult stores looking for sex toys"

"Oh for heaven's sakes no don't be silly" I relaxed, thank god for that. "That's what the internets for"

I looked over at her, realising that not only was she serious, she was also desperately trying to keep from laughing out loud.

"Young lady, I believe Natalie has been a bad influence on you"

"Oh really, I thought she was a good influence, getting me used to some of things I can look forward to you doing to me" I chuckled.

"What makes you think I'll be doing all the work? I expect you to be doing your fair share of it"

"I have no problem with that Sharon, I enjoyed what we did to each other earlier" I felt my body starting to get a little heated remembering exactly what we had done to each other earlier. "But there is one thing I would like you to do to me first"

"What's that honey?"

"I've always liked hard, vigorous sex, so I'd like you to be the one who fucks me hard with a strap on when we get one" I groaned at the image that she had conjured up, while my body felt that flush of heat getting hotter and spreading through my groin and elsewhere.

"Do you have a preference Brenda?" She looked at me, resting on her side with a smile on her face, one hand supporting her head, while the other idly started playing with my nipple. I sucked in a breath as the sensation ran straight through me.

"I do like being bent over something, having my legs spread and being taken from behind, but I don't care really, whatever you want to do to me will be wonderful"

I swallowed as I imagined taking her just like she asked. I could see her, my imagination already dragging me to where we both wanted to go.

Brenda, bent flat over her office desk late at night, wearing nothing but a pair of ridiculously high stilettoes, doing wonderful things to those legs, standing behind her, running my tongue up and down her legs, one hand stroking my strap on, before standing and running the tip up and down her pussy, coating it in her wetness.

Sliding it in, slowly, feeling her pushing back as little mewling sounds came from her, pulling out and then burying it to the hilt, faster and faster, pistoning it in and out harder and harder, hearing her moans and cries, the sound of my hips slapping her ass over and over, Brenda begging me to finish her off, my hands on her hips, pulling her back onto me as the room fills with her screaming my name.

I licked my lips as I felt my body responding with a spark and I wanted her now. She continued to tease my nipple, before leaning in and flicking it with her tongue, the sly little minx. Brenda knew exactly what she was doing and was getting me ready for another round.

As I pounced on her and attacked her breasts with my mouth I realised that Brenda might be a handful in bed, but it was going to be fun trying to tame her. I might need those restraints though, sooner rather than later.

As I lost myself in her soft moans I idly wondered if there were any online adult stores that did same day delivery.


	83. Chapter 83

**A/N **Just a reiteration, these characters and their rights belong to their creators. No copyright infringement is intended, but thank you for letting us have our way with them, even if only for a little while

**The next morning**

Brenda's viewpoint

I don't know what time it was when I first woke, the light through the curtains was still dim, so it must have been early.

I was disoriented for a couple of seconds, this wasn't my bed, my apartment, then I realised exactly where I was, a reminder brought home by the realisation that I was lying on my side, being spooned by Sharon, her hand resting on my thigh, her soft breath warm on my neck.

For a moment, I just lay there, as I felt the biggest smile break out all over my face. I'd come back to Sharon's place and we'd made love for hours, sometimes soft, sometimes urgent, all of it wonderful. I sighed, if this was what it was like with Sharon, damn, why'd we taken so long to get here.

I sighed again, a less happy sound this time. We hadn't been ready. More honestly I hadn't been ready. I hadn't even contemplated a relationship with a woman before our friends walked into my life and opened my eyes to something I'd never considered. Then when Sharon had decided to pursue me, I was almost ready for it. Squirming just a little further back into her embrace, I could feel the happy warmth of her body against mine; giving me a comfort I'd missed so much.

I owed Sharon a massive debt of gratitude, for taking the risks to make us both happy, an emotion I hadn't had an abundance of in the last year, if not longer. Now, feeling deliciously relaxed and tired, even after a couple of hours sleep, I realised that I could so easily grow used to waking like this every day.

I reached down and gently pulled Sharon's arm from my thigh and up across my tummy till it rested just under my breasts, wrapping her around me and bringing a deeper sense of contentment to the morning.

"Bren honey, go back to sleep" I smiled at the soft, half asleep voice in my ear.

"Sorry Sharon, I didn't mean to wake you" Sharon's normally crisp words were sleep-slurred.

"You're thinkin' too hard, stop thinkin' and go back to sleep hon" To reinforce the words her arm tightened around me and I felt a soft kiss on my shoulder.

Smiling, I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.

When next I woke, we'd shifted position, but I liked this one even more. I'd obviously rolled to face her as Sharon was asleep on her side facing me; her body curled into mine, with her head nestled under my chin, one leg across mine and my arm resting on her waist. I lay there for a while, feeling her slow even breathing under me, as she slept comfortably wrapped up against me.

I liked this, having the chance to hold her close; it made me feel protective, although if there was a woman who didn't need protecting it was Sharon. Mind you, she spent her days wrapped in her scary Commander Raydor armour, not many people got to see the lovely soft person underneath, I was lucky to have been one of them, even before we became lovers.

Now I had her snuggled up against me and I wouldn't change places with anyone for this, to have her and hold her, here safe away from the world, where she could just be Sharon, wrapped in warmth and comfort. I smiled again and gently kissed the top of her head, breathing in the scent of her shampoo and feeling the softness of her hair against my cheek.

I don't know how long I lay there, just revelling in where I was and what I was feeling. My mind skipped back over last night's events, scenes playing out like a slideshow in my mind.

Sharon in those jeans and heels, feeling her hands pushing my thighs apart as she leaned in to lick me, kissing her in Blush, riding her thigh as we made out, the incredible first taste of her, bucking under her tongue on my clit, feeling her fingers in me, our slick skin sliding against each other, feeling her hand under my tee as we slowly kissed, sucking on her nipples, being held as we came down from our climax, whispered words and frenzied cries, oh yes, I had so much to remember.

I awake with a gentle start, realising I'd dropped back into a nap. I was aware that it was a lot lighter than before, the clock on her bedside table said 9.25, so we'd slept on and off for about five hours. I'd been aware for a while that Sharon was stirring, she'd been snuggling in closer, making little noises, bringing a smile to my face. It was nice, in my marriage to Fritz, I'd been the snuggler, always the one seeking the warmth and security of his body, here it was Sharon smuggling into me and I loved it.

Finally her eyes opened and I smiled at her, as she sleepily focused on me, before her expression got all soft and warm. I just smiled even wider at the look on her face.

"Good morning sweetie" She smiled back.

"Good morning to you too" I leaned in and kissed her, morning breath and all, I didn't care. We must have laid there for about half an hour, just kissing and snuggling, before the call of nature dragged her out of bed and into the bathroom. I could hear the usual morning noises, followed by the sound of brushing teeth, which sounded like an excellent idea. Sharon appeared in the doorway, nude and lovely, as I ran my eyes over her in appreciation.

"Don't s'pose you happen to have a..." My voice trailed off as Sharon produced a toothbrush from behind her back. "Bless you" I jumped up and made my way to the bathroom, grabbing the toothbrush and a quick kiss on the way.

A few minutes later I walked back into the bedroom to see Sharon lying face down on the bed, still naked. I took one look at her body lying there and licked my lips, imagining all the things I could to her, especially as my eyes drifted over her tight, runner's ass. It was just made to have attention lavished on it and I had both intent and permission to do just that.

I smiled, not only at the thought, but the realization that whatever prior inhibitions I may have had about sex with a woman, last night had more than blown them away.

"And what might you be thinking young lady?" I looked up to see Sharon gazing at me over her shoulder, through narrowed eyes. '_Oops, busted_'.

I grinned, moving to the bed and slipping onto it, before moving up alongside Sharon and then sliding a leg over her hip, ending up lying on top of her back, my weight held on my knees and forearms.

"I was just imagining what I'd like to do to that lovely toned ass of yours, which made me realise you seem to have completely fucked all the straightness out of me" I leaned down to lay a kiss on her shoulder before moving to the back of her neck, moving her hair out of the way so I could lay kisses along it. I could hear the smile in her voice.

"It was a pleasure, let me tell you" As she spoke, she levered her ass up off the bed and ground it back into mine, getting an equal reaction as I ground my hips into her. I grinned.

"Ready for more are we?" She smiled gently, before rolling over to face me.

"Soon" She leaned up to kiss me, deep and long, making me hum in pleasure before she dropped her head back. "But first we need some food, I'm starving" I was about to say something about her preferring food to me, when my tummy growled, completely destroying any chance I had of making it sound convincing. "C'mon Brenda, breakfast"

She scooted out from under me, before hopping up and walking to her wardrobe and pulling out a silken robe, handing it to me. I looked at it a little askance; short enough that it barely covered my ass. As I was contemplating it, Sharon pulled on a long white fluffy robe, covering her all the way to her ankles.

"How come I get the one that leaves my ass flapping in the breeze sweetie?" She just smiled wickedly.

"Cause I like the view, my house, my rules" With that she breezed out of the bedroom and headed for the kitchen, leaving me to follow in her wake, smiling.

An hour later we were lingering in the kitchen over second cups of coffee, a halfway healthy breakfast of fruit and pancakes filling up the empty spot in our tummies. In typical Sharon fashion she'd whipped everything together in no time flat; I swear the woman was a scary perfectionist.

Now we were sitting there at her table, I was admiring the way her robe fell open, exposing her legs, plus I'd caught her looking at me in that ridiculously short robe, I'd had to be careful I didn't flash her every time I moved on the chair. Finally I lay my coffee cup down and looked her in the eyes.

"So what do we do now sweetie"

"You mean after we have a nice long shower together, go back to bed for a few hours, finally drag ourselves back here for some lunch and then spend most of the afternoon back in bed again?" I grinned.

"Mmm, that sounds nice" Sharon smiled lazily.

"Fortunately I have a big shower, so we can shower together, save water, that sort of thing" I grinned.

"If you think showering together is gonna save water, you're dead wrong sweetie" We sat there a moment, smiling at each other, the nights passion having given way to the morning's affection. I found myself full to burstin' with happiness, with contentment and with tenderness towards Sharon.

"It's gonna be so hard Sharon, being at work with you"

"I know Brenda, the thought had occurred to me"

"Having you a few floors away, having to be careful around you, not letting on that all I wanna do is kiss you and hold you" Sharon looked a little pensive.

"Do you want to hide this Brenda, hide us?"

"I don't know Sharon, this feels so great I kinda want to yell it from the rooftops, 'Sharon Raydor makes me so happy' for everyone to hear" I could see the smile blossom at my words. "But at the same time I want to keep it all to ourselves, keep it private and special"

"I can understand that honey, we've only just begun, I'm a private person, I don't particularly like being the subject of gossip, especially hurtful gossip and believe me it will be hurtful. That comes with being in FID; remember, you're sleeping with the most hated woman in the LAPD" I shrugged, the thought didn't bother me.

"And you're sleeping with the second most hated Sharon, I've burnt way too many bridges in pursuit of what I've thought's right, to have that many friends in the LAPD"

"We're going to have to tell a few people at work Brenda" I pulled a face, getting a hint of a smile from her as I did.

"We do? I suppose we do. HR I suppose"

"Yes, plus we have to assign an alternate lead for any investigations where FID and Major Crimes overlap"

"Um, yeah, I guess. Who are you going to assign?"

"Elliot will take point if it happens. He already knows that I'm bi, so this won't be that much of an earth shattering piece of information" At my look she chuckled. "Well until he hears who my new girlfriend is, that will probably rock his world a bit though" I thought about it for a moment before looking into Sharon's eyes, a bit hesitant to ask.

"How did he learn you were…bisexual" Sharon shrugged.

"I was out having dinner with Brooke, not long after we first got together. He was still a Sergeant and was taking his wife out for dinner at the same restaurant. Anyway, we didn't realise he was there and had a few PDA's which he saw" Sharon shrugged. "He knew I'd had kids, now I was obviously involved with a woman, he put two and two together" Sharon took a sip of her coffee.

"After he passed his exam for Lieutenant we went out for a congratulatory drink and he casually asked if I was still together with the short-haired brunette woman. It was after we'd broken up so I told him no. He smiled, said it was too bad as I looked like I was happy. He never mentioned it again"

"Sounds like he's a good choice"

"I think so, smart and discreet. What about you? Who will you assign?" I sighed.

"If I could I'd assign Jane, she already knows, she wouldn't take crap from anyone and doesn't have any prior FID / Major Crimes history. Unfortunately she's not got enough rank and's only on temporary secondment" Sharon frowned.

"More's the pity" I nodded, I thought the same.

"I'm working on changing that, if I can I want them both to stay. Not only is Jane a very good detective and Maura a great M.E, they're both good friends." Sharon nodded.

"Exactly, if there's anything I can do to help, let me know. I want them to stay as well. Hopefully working together we can change that" I flashed a smile at her, right now the thought of doing anything together felt good. "But back to work for a moment…" I nodded.

"It'll have to be one of the Lieutenants, which means Provenza, Flynn or Tao" Sharon nodded once.

"I think I'd prefer it to be Tao, he has less history with both FID and me than either Provenza or Flynn, plus he'd be discreet" I nodded. Sharon's thoughts were the same as mine.

"Then I'll talk to him soon. When will you talk to Elliot?"

"Probably later this week, after we talk to HR. Of course, if there's an OIS then we'll have to move quicker"

"Sharon, is it wrong to not want to tell people yet? To keep it just you and me for a bit, I mean we've just started and it's kinda scary to tell you the truth. Not about us, I mean this is great and wonderful and I'm really, really happy with you, it's just that I'm not looking forward to having to deal with people like Taylor and Pope is all"

"Honey, we're eventually going to have to tell people, sooner or later, but we don't have to right away. I understand what you're saying, Taylor will be bad, it's Pope who worries me" I nodded. I was thinking the same thing. "He still wants you, he's interested in me and the two of us together is going to be something that he'll take personally" I frowned in annoyance, Pope's history of messing up my professional and personal lives did that.

"Well he'll have to watch his step, because if he gives us any grief, then I'm willing to drag his sorry ass in front of a judge on a sexual harassment and discrimination case" Sharon shook her head slowly.

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that" I smiled.

"He's hardly the most observant of people at the best of times, maybe he won't realise until we're ready to tell him" She smiled back at me.

"Possibly honey, but I will point out that both of us work around very observant detectives"

"How long do you think before they work out something's going on" Sharon smirked.

"Given we'll both have that happy, 'just got laid' look, probably Monday morning" I grinned at her words, getting an answering smile. "As for the fact that you're the one making me happy, that might take a little longer: She shrugged. "It depends on how long we avoid working together. If we have to work together then no time at all really" I thought about that.

"You think we'll be that obvious?" Sharon smiled gently at me.

"How long did it take for you to see Jane and Maura were more than friends?" I grimaced.

"Good point. Let's hope none of my squad has to shoot anyone for a week or two then" Sharon smiled slowly, blatantly running her eyes over me.

"Yep, they're not the Major Crimes member I want to investigate" At the obvious appraisal in her eyes I felt myself bushing, not to mention warming up elsewhere as well. I dropped my head, peering up through my lashes at her, my voice soft. I was flirting with her and we both knew it.

"Would that be an in-depth, hands-on investigation Commander Raydor?" Sharon shifted in her seat, bringing her leg against mine, where it slowly moved up and down, teasingly.

"I'd be giving it my full, total and personal attention Chief" Realising two could play at that, I moved slightly, letting the robe slip a little more open, drawing her eyes down into my cleavage.

"They must be a dangerous offender then, if they need your full attention" Sharon dragged her eyes back up out of my tits for a moment, looking into my eyes, as I saw the desire shining there.

"Oh they are, quite notorious in fact. I may have to conduct a full body search, maybe even a cavity search, to be sure they're not concealing anything" I stared back at her, knowing my eyes were as obvious as hers.

"I'm surprised you don't use your handcuffs then, isn't that what you do with dangerous offenders?" I saw her eyes widen a fraction at that, as I pressed my advantage. "That way they can't resist as you conduct your searching examination"

Sharon smiled, the corner of her lower lip caught between her teeth, as she ran the fingers of her right hand down the V of her robe, unerringly dragging my eyes with them as she exposed a little more of her breasts to me. I didn't know who was winning our little game and frankly, we both knew we were both going to get what we wanted, so who cared?

"It's a dirty job honey, but someone has to do it" I smiled as I uncrossed and re-crossed my legs, seeing Sharon's eyes drop to my thighs, turning up the temperature a little.

"That it is, but I trust you to clean it up. Speaking of which, I'm getting a little hot and bothered, I think I need that shower" I stood up and took a few steps towards the bathroom, looking over my shoulder. "Coming sweetie?"

"Nah, I think I'll sit here for a moment and enjoy the view" Hearing the implicit challenge I grinned, slowly turning and walking towards the door, as I undid the robe's belt.

"Enjoy away" With that I let the robe slip off and fall to the floor, as I looked over my shoulder, seeing Sharon smile and lick her lips before she stood up, undoing the robe and letting it fall back onto the chair.

Now it was my time to smile, she was magnificent. Slowly Sharon sauntered towards me, putting on a show that stoked the slow burn deep inside me.

"C'mon Brenda, let's get you into the shower. I'll even help you, y'know, with all those hard to reach spots" With that she leaned in and kissed me, one full of heat and tenderness and promise, before taking my hand and leading me through the house and into the shower.

I grinned; I had a feeling we were going to get very dirty before we got clean.


	84. Chapter 84

**People Problems**

Brenda's viewpoint

I was running late, thanks to an uncooperative murder victim, which had seen the squad called out into the hills to a B-grade movie producer's house that morning. He'd made his money making dreadful horror movies, the kind that David had disturbingly but accurately described as 'torture porn'.

Apparently the producer's killer had decided to recreate one of his movie's more famous scenes with the producer in the starring role. Normally I'd still be there, but Sharon and I had an appointment with HR to disclose that we were together. I'd texted that I was on my way but running a bit late.

Sharon was waiting for me in the hall outside HR when I got there, checking her emails on her iPhone. She looked lovely in a deep blue dress and matching heels, plus a crisp white jacket. She looked great and I thoroughly approved of her ensemble, plus the lilac lingerie she was wearing under it, almost as much as I'd approved of it as she'd got dressed this morning after we'd spent the night at my place.

In a way it was scary, here it was Friday and we were both finding it hard to stay away from each other. We'd caught up for dinner on Monday night as usual, walking back to the car park hand in hand, before having an extended make out session in the shadows. Once home, we'd exchanged texts before going to bed, for a sleep I was finding hard to capture. Thoughts of Sharon filled my head and I missed her next to me terribly.

I'd woken up on Tuesday, determined to put those thoughts behind me, I was supposed to be a senior officer in the LAPD, with murders to solve and criminals to catch, not moping and mooning over Sharon.

The day had turned out relatively quiet, so Sharon's text during lunch was very welcome. She seemed to be a bit lonely too, so we kept up the text chatter through the afternoon, until I'd worked up enough courage to ask if we could be together tonight.

Her answer had been a quick and certain '_YES!_', so I'd made my way to her place after work, picking up some delicious Thai take out on the way and ended up sitting on Sharon's couch as we laughed at a cheesy police procedural, picking apart all the mistakes.

We'd ended up in bed soon enough, where we'd spent two hours driving each other into a series of orgasms that left us feeling delightfully happy, followed by a lazy hour and a half of cuddling and chatting.

I told her that I'd missed her, not having her next to me in bed. She'd just laughed and joked that what I was missing was the sex, teasing me mercilessly about it, before eventually quietening and admitting that she'd missed me too. In fact she'd been working up the courage to ask if we could be together tonight when my text had arrived.

I'd been worried that Sharon would think I was being needy, but she'd admitted to the same worries, so we just giggled at each other's silliness, before agreeing that we'd sleep together regularly during the week and as much as we could on the weekends.

We'd eventually fallen asleep snuggled together, my head buried in her neck as I spooned up against her back, my arm held tight against her chest, I don't know about Sharon but I fell asleep with a smile on my face.

Wednesday had been a quick race out early to get home and changed in time for work, I'd been so eager to see Sharon I'd forgotten to bring fresh clothes; next time I was going to bring a change with me so I could spend more time with Sharon before work.

We'd texted back and forward during the day, before Sharon caught an OIS in Valley Division that was going to keep her busy till late. I was a bit sad, until we got a lead on our sniper case.

A mom and pop store reported a break in, with food and other essentials stolen. The burglar had hidden their face from the cameras, dazzling the lenses with a laser pointer before smashing them with a hammer. She'd missed one though, which showed that they were walking with a pronounced limp. A few shots had given us enough of a shot of the face, lit by their reflected torchlight, to identify it as Charlotte Weaver, our sniper.

It was obvious she was still out there, but hiding. Based on how much stuff she'd been able to carry away before anyone could respond to the alarm, we estimated she had about a week's food. That led us to check other stores which had exhibited similar MOs, to find she'd hit another store ten blocks away week earlier. That narrowed the area down some, but it was still a huge area to cover.

By the time we'd wrapped up it was after nine at night and Sharon was deep in her OIS, so we settled for a quick phone call and a few texts, before I headed off to a lonely bed. Thursday had opened around six with a text from Sharon, asking if we could sleep together that night, so I'd rapidly replied that I'd love to, before whizzing round the apartment making sure it was presentable, plus changing the sheets.

Both of us had been busy all day, but we'd agreed to be at my place by seven, with Sharon bringing Tex-Mex for dinner. She arrived with food and a suit bag with fresh clothes for tomorrow, explaining that this way she could sleep in with me, rather than racing home.

Fortunately, I'd been shopping on the way home and bought a toothbrush, plus the same brand of shampoo, conditioner and other shower products I'd seen at Sharon's, if she was staying I wanted her to feel right at home.

We stayed up until about nine, before heading into bed, where we'd cuddled for a while, Sharon admitting that she didn't sleep all that well alone, she wanted to feel me close. I'd laughed, as I felt exactly the same. I'd been worried that I was too clingy, but knowing Sharon felt the same made me so happy I just had to tell her and then show her exactly how much I wanted to have her in bed next to me.

We'd woken up just after six, snuggled for a while as we neither of us wanted to get out of bed just yet, then had a long and not terribly clean shower together before I'd watched Sharon get dressed, openly admiring all those curves.

I was getting dressed as she criticised the contents of my cupboards and fridge, openly wondering if anyone actually lived here, with not a piece of fresh food to be found anywhere, when the phone rang, dragging me off to our late, lamented producer's house.

We'd kissed and headed our separate ways, promising to meet outside HR at one in the afternoon, unfortunately I was ten minutes late, which saw me spilling apologies as soon as I stepped out of the elevator and spotted Sharon.

Fortunately Sharon just smiled and told me she understood, before we made our way in to see Candace Morrell, the head of HR. We'd met before, usually around performance evaluation time or back when Julio had been shot, she'd always seemed both efficient and compassionate and I liked her. We exchanged small talk for a minute or so, before she smiled and leaned forward.

"It's not every day I have the LAPD's two most senior female officers' drop in, how can I help?" Sharon and I exchanged a glance before she smiled and I nodded.

"We're here to fill out the paperwork to report that Brenda and I are dating" Candace's face broke into a smile.

"Congratulations. Does this mean both of you now have a life outside of work?" I looked up to see her eyes dancing. I grinned.

"Maybe, if the citizens of LA cooperate" Sharon's voice was warm and amused.

"And the officers of the LAPD shoot fewer of those citizens in the first place, then yes, perhaps" I looked over at Sharon and smiled. Candace chuckled.

"We can all only hope, though if it happened we'd all be out of a job, I doubt any of us should be thinking of a career change just yet though" As she spoke she pulled several forms out of a tray and fixed them to clipboards before handing them over.

"Pretty standard stuff, disclosure of relationship form, confidentiality form, signing it states that you acknowledge that IA can access the form under some circumstances, all straightforward really"

Reading it, I saw it really was quite straightforward, a lot simpler than I'd imagined. Looking up I saw Sharon glance up and catch my eye, as we shared a small smile.

I rummaged round in my bag for a pen to sign them, then handed it over to Sharon to do the same, before we handed our clipboards back.

Candace placed them to one side and smiled.

"Given whom you both are, I expect this is all a bit redundant but you understand I have to ask. Have you set up alternates to avoid any potential conflict of interest or impropriety issues?" Sharon smiled.

"Lieutenant Elliot will run point on any use of force investigations into Major Crimes while Lieutenant Tao will be lead on their end. Otherwise I can't see our relationship affecting how we work together" I nodded.

"Anyone who's silly enough to think that us being together will affect how we do our jobs, well they obviously don't know either of us at all" Candace made a few notes before looking up and smiling.

"There, all done. Can I offer my congratulations to you both" I smiled as Sharon spoke.

"Thank you, its early days but it feels good" I felt warm inside as we exchanged glances.

"Yeah, really good" Candace looked down at the notes in front of her.

"You mentioned Michael Tao will run things from your end Brenda, does that mean he's turning down the promotion?"

"What promotion?" I was confused; I hadn't heard anything about a promotion. Candace pursed her lips.

"You weren't aware? He'd been sounded out about a promotion to Captain to run a squad in SID. When you mentioned his name I thought he'd turned it down again" I sat there, a bit stunned. He'd turned down a promotion to Captain, not that it wasn't well deserved.

"No, I wasn't aware. You said he'd turned it down again? He'd been approached before?" Candace nodded, turning to her computer.

"Let me see... Hmm. Here we go, yes, he'd been approached twice before this latest offer, declined each time" I was shocked, three times he'd turned a promotion down. I looked over at Sharon, to see her looking at me, one eyebrow raised.

"I didn't know" Candace smiled.

"No reason for you to until he told you, it wouldn't have got to the formal stage where you'd be notified unless he had indicated he was interested. I have to say, your squad's amongst the most stable in the entire department, very few transfers or departures" Candace's eyes flicked across to Sharon.

"It's not just Major Crimes either Sharon, FID hasn't had a staff change in three years, since Jenny Taggart left to have a baby and Mark Rosenberg arrived. I actually have a file full of requests to transfer into both your squads if a vacancy should arise, but one never does"

Sharon and I shared a surprised look before Sharon turned to Candace, shock evident in her voice.

"People want to transfer into FID? You must be joking?"

"Not at all, both squads rate highly on the desirable assignments list for junior and mid-level officers, particularly female officers. The fact that they're led by the two most senior female role models in the department obviously has a lot to do with it, but that's not the only reason" Candace hesitated for a moment, before pressing on.

"Your squads both have very high success rates, your team members job satisfaction ratings in the annual staff surveys are very high, you both have very successful, close knit teams, which reflects great credit on you both" I bit my lip, a little uncomfortable with the praise; looking across at Sharon I could see she was looking like I felt, a little nervous and a little overwhelmed.

Candace must have realised that as she gave us a moment to think. Finally she spoke.

"I understand that it's a lot to take in, but for the good of your officers you should think about encouraging them to seek promotion, outside your squad if there are no vacancies inside them" I chewed my lip for a moment, the thought of someone leaving the squad was…disturbing.

"Candace, this is... quite a surprise, I would never stand in the way of any of my people's advancement, I'm sure Brenda wouldn't either. I just didn't know..." I nodded to back up Sharon, I felt the same way.

"I'm sure neither of you did, interviews we do with your staff as part of the annual staff survey make it clear that your teams respect and like you. Basically they prefer to stay where they are rather than move to a higher rank somewhere else" Candace turned and called up some files on her pc, obviously reading comments from the files.

"Officer stated they would prefer to stay in their current position and await a promotional opening within their current squad … Officer noted that they were happy to decline promotion outside their current squad … Officer stated that they would rather stay at their current position and rank and make a real difference than be promoted to somewhere else and not … Officer stated they want to keep working for a leader they respected, even at the cost of declining promotion"

Candace sat back and watched us both for a moment as we both realised what they were saying.

Sharon looked as stunned as I did, as I dealt with how I felt. I mean I was incredibly flattered that my squad wanted to stay with me, but at the same time I didn't want to stand in the way of the promotions they so obviously deserved.

"Uh, wow. Um, I had no idea" Sharon looked at me and nodded slowly.

"Same here, I didn't realise the situation"

"I'm sure neither of you did, which is why I took the opportunity to bring it up with you. I'm sorry to dump it on you right now, when you no doubt have other things on your mind" She smiled warmly. "But I was planning to bring it up with each of you the next time we sat down, to have you both together was too good an opportunity to pass up" She made a 'what can you do' gesture'. "Sorry"

Following Candace's bombshell, we stepped out of Human Resources and paused in the corridor near the elevators. I looked up at Sharon, all composed and calm, not at all like the passionate woman she was away from work. I kept my voice down.

"Hey sweetie, you ok?" She pursed her lips.

"I suppose I'm working on too many shocks all at once, people actually want to transfer into FID is a surprise, but to learn that my squad's turning down transfers to stay, I'm still coming to terms with that"

"Same here, I don't want to see any of the guys leave, but on the other hand, I don't want to stop them from getting the promotions they all deserve"

We stood there for a moment, I just wanted to lean in and kiss her, but who knew when someone would walk out and spot us, so I contented myself to laying a hand on her arm, getting a smile in return. Sharon's voice was low and warm.

"My place tonight honey? I'll cook"

"That'd be lovely Sharon, can I bring something?"

"Just you, that's all I need"

"At least let me bring dessert" Sharon chuckled.

"Knowing you it'll be chocolate, rich and fattening" I smiled, she knew me all right.

"Gives us an excuse to burn off some calories together" At that Sharon smiled softly.

"Oh honey, I never need a reason for that with you, I'd happily do that all night long" I smiled, her words just made my spirit soar. The elevator dinging brought me back to earth, before we hopped in.

My floor came first, as I walked out Sharon's voice followed me.

"Oh Chief, don't forget our meeting later" I smiled, turning to see her standing there amongst a few other people.

"Thank you Commander, I won't" She nodded, only I could see the mirth dancing in her eyes as the doors closed, her voice just squeaking through as they shut.

"Don't be late" I was left there standing looking at the closed doors, trying to hold in a huge laugh.

The good humour followed me into the squad room, where most of the team was busy. I spotted my quarry at his desk.

Lieutenant Tao, could I see you please?"

"Sure thing Chief" He got up and followed me through into my office, where I asked him to close the door.

"Is everything OK Chief?" I just indicated he should take a seat; I almost took the seat next to him but decided to keep it normal, especially as everyone outside was trying to not be too obvious that they were watching. Sitting behind my desk I leaned forward and smiled.

"Everything's fine thank you Lieutenant, but I need to brief you in on a new development" He frowned for a moment then looked up, interested.

"Sure Chief, what's up?"

"I'd appreciate it if you kept this to yourself for the moment, at least until it might become necessary, but from now on, you will be lead officer in any FID investigations involving members of Major Crimes. You'll be dealing direct with Lieutenant Elliot in FID" He sat there for a moment, thinking it over, before he peered at me over his glasses, in a way it reminded me of Sharon, she did the same thing at times.

"Mind telling me why Chief?"

"LAPD Regulations prohibit an officer being involved in an investigation of another that they are in a relationship with" He sat there for about five seconds, taking it all in, before he put it all together, his voice slow and a bit hesitant.

"You and Commander Raydor...?" I looked at him for a few seconds, before speaking.

"Yes Lieutenant, me and Commander Raydor"

"Wow. Uh...ok, no problem Chief" He paused, obviously not sure if he should ask. Finally curiosity overcame fear. "Um how long, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Friends for a long while, dating for a few weeks, more since last weekend" He smiled, a little hesitantly.

"So is this the reason you've been so happy these last few weeks?" I smiled.

"Yep, when did you first notice anything, if I might ask?"

"We've all noticed you've been happier for the last few weeks, more than you have been the last few years. A couple of people thought you may have been seeing someone, but I think Buzz might have been the only one to put it all together" I looked at him through narrowed eyes.

"Really, what made you say that?" He shrugged.

"He made a comment at the Ball, something about you and Commander Raydor, how if you were any closer you'd be changing your Facebook status" I nodded. That was Buzz; he saw a lot more than he ever let on about.

"Maybe I should promote him to detective" Michael smiled.

"Then who'd film the scene?" I smiled.

"Good point" He nodded, obviously still trying to get his head around what had happened.

"Well Chief, let's hope we don't have to have an FID investigation anytime soon" I nodded, but for entirely different reasons. He went to stand. "If you don't mind Chief, I'll get back to work"

"Thank you Lieutenant" He stood and headed for the door, when my voice stopped him.

"Lieutenant…" Michael turned.

"How long are you going to keep turning down promotions?" He looked suddenly wary.

"Uh…Chief?" I sighed.

"I know. I found out today" He looked at the floor, the desk, the wall behind me, anywhere but at me as I waited. Finally he sighed and looked at me.

"Well, I kinda like it here" I smiled, he really was sweet.

"I know…and I appreciate it. But you deserve to be recognised for the outstanding job you've been doing for more years than I care to remember" He stood there, looking at me.

"Michael, you've been a wonderful member of this squad, but I have to say that you'd be a great Captain too, leading a team of people you could train and mentor and help grow" A pained expression crossed his face.

"Are you saying you don't want me on the squad anymore" I bolted up from the chair in shock.

"Heaven's no!" I paused for a moment. "I'm sorry, I'm messing this up and I'm really sorry" I stepped around the desk and stood there, spreading my hands helplessly.

"I value you Michael, your advice, your insights, I trust you without hesitation and you're my friend. If you were to leave I'd miss you terribly and my door would always be open for you, no matter when or what" I paused to swallow a lump.

"But as your friend, I don't want you to keep turning down promotions that you completely deserve, that you've earned a dozen times over. I want you to be the Captain you deserve to be, getting the recognition that's due to you; I don't want to hold you back"

He stood there looking at me for a moment, he was obviously thinking hard about something.

"Chief…Brenda. I still think I have a lot to learn here" I laughed, both at his words and his tone.

"Lieutenant, who are you trying to kid. I'm the one who still has a lot to learn; who taught me to text and attach photos and such? It was you as I recall" He smiled in recollection. "Next time you get an offer, come and talk to me about it, please? I won't try and convince you to take it, but we can talk about it"

He stood there, silent for a while, before nodding.

"Ok Chief" I smiled as he turned and left the office.

I sat back on the edge of the desk and looked out, seeing each of the squad working away. I'd really hate to lose any of them, but my boys deserved to leave the nest and soar, it was well due and they deserved it.

Didn't mean I had to like it though.


	85. Chapter 85

**Dinner Discussions Part 1**

Jane's viewpoint

Maura was playing games again. I'd been aware that Natalie was having an influence on her for a while now; she was more assertive, more confident and more affectionate than before we'd come to Los Angeles. I wasn't complaining though, she was full of joy, happy, playful and my life with her had changed in so many ways that I just counted my blessings every day.

It was Friday and Maura had been out late the last three nights in a row, catching up with Natalie and getting in around 9.30 most nights, they were obviously planning something though given how the last time they'd done that had turned out I wasn't complaining. Turns out I was right as Maura had texted me to be home by 6, as they had a big night planned.

Maura wasn't there when I got home, just Jo and Bass and an envelope with my name in Maura's handwriting on the kitchen table. The note inside was intriguing.

_Jane, _

_Tonight is going to be a special night, one that I realise we both need. Please get ready for an interesting evening, a light meal awaits you in the fridge and your clothes are laid out in the bedroom, a car will pick you up at 7.30. _

_Tonight will be difficult for us both, but throughout everything that happens, I want you to know that my love for you is stronger than it has ever been._

_I love you_

_Maura_

I stood there, taking in her neat, clear handwriting on her expensive stationary. That was really curious, what did 'difficult' mean? 'Throughout everything that happens'?

I checked the time, I had about 75 minutes to get ready so I walked into the bedroom and found a new outfit waiting for me.

It was a tailored black pants suit, slacks and a jacket, at first glance it looked like something I would wear to work, but as I pulled it out of the plastic bag I could feel the material, silk, so soft and smooth as it ghosted between my fingers with a subtle pinstripe through it.

A new silk blouse, a rich crimson, completed it, while a set of red lace lingerie, also new, was lying in a La Perla box. I smiled; looks like Maura had some plans for me tonight. Also sitting on the bed in their box was my pair of black Laboutine patent leather pumps, resplendent with their five inch heels. They made my feet hurt after a night on them but Maura loved them for special occasions so I wore them when she asked. My set of diamond stud earrings and a simple gold chain sat draped over the dresser, so all I had to do was have a shower and get ready.

I was ready in plenty of time, I'd pottered around the house, made sure both Jo and Bass had dinner and was waiting when the car arrived at 7.30, a stretch limo which took me up into the hills over LA, as we drove I could see the scenic vistas of the city open up beneath us. The trip took almost 40 minutes through some occasionally heavy traffic, to what I guessed was some private club. There weren't too many cars parked about, so it seemed pretty exclusive.

The car finally came to a stop and a guy in a tuxedo opened the door, greeting me by name, before he led me up into the building, which had been a large mansion once by the look of it, it seemed like it dated from the golden age of Hollywood, all columns and balcony's and huge rooms and sweeping staircases.

I was led through the building until he came to a door which opened into a room about 20 feet to a side, small for this place. Inside there was a table with two chairs under a chandelier, with matching light fittings on the walls. There were two more doors leading into the room with the last wall holding windows covered in drapes.

The man in the tuxedo ushered me in and held my chair for me, I normally don't do too well with the social graces but Maura had worked hard on me and managed to buff my manners some, so I managed to let myself be seated kinda gracefully at the table.

"Please have a pleasant evening Ms Rizzoli, you will be joined shortly" I nodded and he turned and walked out, closing the door behind him. As I looked around I saw an envelope sitting on the table with my name on it. Recognising Maura's handwriting again I opened it and read the note inside.

_Jane, _

_Tonight is a voyage of discovery, for you, not me. _

_I already know what I have and how truly fortunate I am, something you do not yet realise._

_Place your heart and your trust in our hands for we will keep them safe._

_I love you always_

_Maura_

More and more curious, I'd picked up the plural, 'our, we', whatever was planned it seemed both Maura and Nat had had a hand in it

I was wondering what it was I didn't realise I had. It couldn't be Maura; I gave thanks to god every day I was with her, as if all those years of pain I'd lived through had been payment for the joy I'd found with her. What didn't I know I had?

As I pondered and waited, I noticed the lights in the room start to slowly dim, whatever was supposed to happen I guessed it would start soon.

I must have sat there for a couple of minutes when the door on the other side of the room was opened by another guy in a tuxedo, who stepped forward and pulled the other seat out and waited. I heard the click of heels approach the door and looked up expecting to see Maura, when Natalie walked through the door. I wanted to say something but seeing she remained silent I did the same, receiving a tiny nod of appreciation from her.

She was wearing a pants suit that matched mine, white rather than black with a cobalt blue blouse under it, holding a small black velvet bag with a drawstring keeping it closed, as always she looked beautiful. I could see a smile ghost across her lips as she took her seat.

Another waiter entered with two glasses of wine, placing them on the table, a red for me and a white for Nat, before they both withdrew, closing the door behind them and leaving us together. She'd placed the bag on the floor and sat looking at me for a moment before smiling.

"Good evening Jane, thank you for coming tonight" I decided to play along, wondering where Maura was.

"Good evening Natalie, I was expecting Maura, you're a surprise" She smiled wider.

"That was the idea. Maura and I have high hopes for tonight" I nodded slowly.

"Where is Maura?" She tilted her head to one side, contemplating me.

"At this point, she's sitting down elsewhere with Ana, no doubt they're having a pretty similar conversation to us" I frowned, elsewhere? Natalie pouted at me. "Oh Jane, don't be that disappointed, I'm sure we can have a pleasant evening, that's part of the idea for tonight" I looked at her through narrowed eyes.

"I'm not disappointed Nat, just surprised. Why exactly are our girlfriends sitting down somewhere else and why are we here?" She leaned back and folded her hands together on the table in front of her.

"That's a good question. We're here because Maura and I became aware of some thoughts about Ana and yourself that brought things into perspective for us"

"What thoughts, I'm not sure I'm following you"

"Maura has always wondered why you put her first all the time, why you subordinate what you want to what she wants, why you refuse to see what everyone around you sees, why you don't value yourself the way she does" I shrugged.

"It's simple, I love her" Nat nodded agreeably.

"And she loves you. But there always seemed a level of disconnect between how you two felt about each other. You love each other, but you always downplay your positives Jane, especially compared to how you regard Maura"

"Maura and I had a discussion with Brenda at the Ball, before that evening was so rudely interrupted" She sighed. "All that lovely build up, wasted…I had such plans…" She shook her head sadly.

"Anyway, we couldn't understand why both you and Ana refuse to see that you're beautiful, captivating, the centre of everyone's attention"

She looked at me, her blue eyes soft and wondering.

"Jane, you and Ana are two of the most beautiful women in the room, any room. We couldn't understand why you both step back and leave the limelight to Maura and I, when both of you are equally beautiful" I shook my head at her words.

"Maura's beautiful, you're beautiful, hell Ana's pretty damned good looking too, I'm nothing special, especially compared to you three" Nat sighed and shook her head.

"That's exactly the problem. Maura obviously thinks you're beautiful, I think you're stunning and Ana would never admit it to your face, but she thinks you're pretty amazing as well, but you'd deny it till you were blue in the face"

I shrugged, she was just being nice, Maura and Natalie were both stunning women, I couldn't hold a candle to either of them. As for Ana, well she had a centrefold's body, all soft curves and a wonderful smile that reflected the person inside.

"It's true, you and Maura take people's breath away, Ana too, I'm ok, nothing more"

"If you were nothing special Jane, tell me again exactly how you attracted and won the love of Maura Isles, a woman who could have her choice of men or women?" I looked down at the table before speaking, ordering my thoughts as Natalie sipped her wine.

"We had a connection, we went through a lot together and we were friends before we fell in love. I was there and I got very lucky. It wasn't as if she wanted a female lover and she picked me, I'd been her friend and we were attracted to each other, mostly because we'd been there for each other" Natalie placed her glass on the table and leaned back.

"You just don't get it do you? A beautiful woman who dominates a room without even trying, what other people need practice and props to achieve, you do without conscious thought, with you its instinct. Your power, your personality and passion, your beauty, they all combine into a devastating package, one that Maura can't resist" I shrugged.

"We love each other" Natalie frowned.

"Jane, you are either modest to a fault or a complete idiot" She sighed. "You do things to Maura that no one else can, no one ever has. Even before you became lovers you could ruin her panties with a look" I started to say something but she cut me off with a flash of annoyance.

"Oh shut up and listen Jane. That's why I'm here with you now; you'd flash that gorgeous grin and turn her to dripping mush. She sighed. "You do that to her you know. I'm a little more immune to it, enough to sit here and tell you what's actually going on"

I wisely said nothing, reaching out and sipping the red wine, it was a surprisingly good vintage, I'm not really a wine drinker but Maura has helped me appreciate good wine, which this was. As I drank Nat regarded me through hooded eyes, before she finally spoke.

"Jane, you also need to know one thing, a critically important thing. Everything we talk about tonight goes no further, not even to Ana" She leaned forward in her chair, her hands clasped together.

"I will not mention anything we discuss tonight with Maura, that's for you if you choose to. You can talk to Maura about anything we talk about tonight, but what Maura and I shared and what we are sharing tonight is for us alone. I want you to understand that I will never betray your confidence"

I frowned into the glass, what was she getting at? Before I could ask she was speaking again.

"Much of what we're likely to discuss, the only three people who know are you, Maura and I" That got me a little worried actually. What exactly had Maura told her? As I placed the glass down on the table Nat continued, obviously she'd read the look on my face.

"Pretty much everything Jane, your past, her past, your shared lives, your hopes and dreams for the future, for the past three nights Maura and I have spent our time learning everything there is to know about the two most important people in the world, you and Ana."

I must have looked as appalled as I felt.

"Jane, you have to understand why we are doing this. Maura loves you, she loves you enough to do this, to let me sit here and talk to you. Someone close enough to care for you deeply, but is also removed enough to be objective" She shrugged.

"I told Maura pretty much the same things about Ana, I trusted her with the most precious thing in my life, the person I love more than anything and she did the same with me. I'm honoured to have her trust and I want you to know that I treasure her and you"

I sat there for a few moments, trying to wrap my head around everything that had happened, what Maura wanted from me, what Natalie was going to tell me, what it meant for all four of us.

"This changes everything, you know that don't you" Natalie looked across at me, then silently nodded. "If Maura told you as much as you're saying she did, then you know more about me than anyone else besides her, more than my family, my partners, anyone else"

"Yes, that's why I told you everything we discuss is confidential" I thought about it.

"What do you get out of this?" She shrugged.

"I help make two people I care about even happier and Maura helps Ana and I"

"In what way?" Natalie looked me over as she toyed with her wine glass, a speculative look on her face.

"When we first met, I wondered about you, what it was that had captivated the smartest woman I've ever met" She tilted her head to one side, regarding me quietly for a moment.

"I mean, you're attractive, even though you go to ridiculous lengths to deny it. When you stop trying to hide it you're a beautiful woman" I went to say something but she cut me off. "No Jane, this is a night for complete honesty, I'm not here to listen to you being modest or polite, I'm here to tell you the truth and that's what I want to hear from you" She shook her head.

"As I said Jane, I'm here to tell you some truths. You may not believe them, you may not want to hear them, but you will listen to me tonight"

"What sort of truths?"

"That Maura believes you to be the most beautiful woman she's ever met" I shrugged, despite the warmth that thought brought me.

"She's biased. There are lots prettier women that we know, Alex and Olivia in New York, Ana and you here, Brenda and Sharon even, I'm nothing special"

"Jane, Maura can't tell a lie remember, she considers you beautiful, inside and out, an opinion I happen to share" I sat there, looking at her, trying to find something to say. Natalie gave a tiny nod and leaned forward.

"You're strong, protective, dedicated, loving, loyal, devoted to the ones you love and to doing the right thing. You've survived things that would have broken a weaker person and emerged stronger and better for it. The fact that such a collection of outstanding traits is found in a beautiful woman is just the icing on the cake as far as we're both concerned"

I felt my cheeks warm, I wasn't used to the compliments and I was getting embarrassed. It didn't stop Natalie though.

"Maura wonders how she was ever fortunate enough to attract your attention, let alone your love" I couldn't leave that comment alone.

"How she was fortunate…? I'm the one that's unbelievably lucky to have her, not the other way round"

"Jane, Maura told me of her life before you entered it. She wasn't the person she is now; Maura considers everything before you arrived in it as being a pale shell of real life. She only started living when you appeared in her life and opened a world of friendship, acceptance and love to her" I shrugged.

"She needed a friend; I was the one lucky enough to be there for her"

"Yes you were, but you went above and beyond being a friend, didn't you? Willing to do anything to protect her, anything at all"

"Yes, but I loved her"

"Yes you did. Did it ever occur to you that Maura wondered what she gave to you, what made her worthy of being your friend?" What made her worthy…? Maura?

"She's a wonderful person, smart, giving, gentle, she's just…Maura"

"That she is. Jane, you know you love Maura and Maura loves you, but Maura wonders what she can offer someone who is everything she needs"

"Just being there, that's all I need" Natalie nodded as she leaned forward.

"I completely understand, but Maura needs you to know that without you she'd be nothing, her life an empty shell, she needs you, your presence, your approval and your love" I sat there for a few moments, working through what Natalie had said. Finally I looked up at her.

"So what you're saying is that Maura needs me to be happy" Natalie's answer contained absolute certainty.

"No Jane, Maura needs you to live"

The silence that followed was deafeningly loud. I considered what I was going to say, before deciding to say nothing, taking a sip of wine instead as Natalie waited. Finally she sighed, realising I wasn't going to respond.

"Maura told me to tell you we can do this the easy way or the hard way" I decided to push back a bit; I'd been dancing to her tune so far.

"What's the hard way?" I looked on as she smirked at me, before picking up the black cloth bag, opening the drawstring and reaching into it.

As I watched she pulled out a luxurious silk sleeping mask and laid it on the table.

Natalie was watching me carefully as she reached in again and pulled out a set of fur lined leather cuffs, laying them besides the mask. I swallowed as I looked at those cuffs. They wouldn't leave any marks, but once buckled on, you wouldn't be able to get them off, they were joined by several chromed steel links, obviously of fine quality, combining form and function in a quite erotic package.

"What the hell is this? No way" Natalie remained calm, nodding slowly.

"Maura said that would be your reaction. Jane, that woman knows you better than you know yourself. We can have a civilised discussion where you don't clam up or we can do this the hard way, your choice"

"What makes you think I'd let you use those on me?" Natalie smiled quietly at me.

"Three reasons. Firstly, I'm here on Maura's behalf and you would do anything she'd ask, same as she would do anything for you. You both live for each other, something I can completely understand" I couldn't argue with that so I left that well alone.

"And the second?"

"As her letter said, place your trust in our hands" I nodded slowly.

"And the third?" She reached out and picked up her glass, before leaning back.

"Because I would ask you to" I thought that one over for a while as Natalie watched me, sipping her wine. Finally she placed the glass back down and leaned forward.

"Jane, do you trust Maura?" I nodded without hesitation.

"With my life, implicitly" She nodded, like a teacher getting the correct answer.

"Do you trust me?" I thought about that. I'd known Nat and Ana for only a couple of months, but they'd never done anything to make me distrust them. On the contrary, they had proven worthy of our trust plenty of times. They were our friends, up there with Frost and Korsak and Alex and Olivia. They couldn't be our friends without that implying a level of trust.

"Yes"

"Thank you Jane. I appreciate that and for what it's worth to you, I trust you completely" She pushed the sleep mask across the table. "Please place that over your eyes"

I looked at it sitting there for a moment, considering what she was asking, before coming to a decision, picking it up and holding it over my eyes, it was soft but blocked every hint of light, leaving me plunged in darkness. With the loss of my sight, I became aware of every noise in the room. I could hear my breathing, the creak of wood as Natalie left her chair and the click of her heels on the floor as she walked around to stand behind me.

I started a bit as her hands smoothed my hair down, before I felt her take hold of the silk ribbons of the mask and pulled them gently tight, tying them behind my head and holding the mask in place.

"Thank you Jane, please place your hands in your lap." I almost refused, wondering if she was going to shackle me, before I heard her walk back to her chair and it creak as she sat down.

"I've deprived you of the most acute of your five senses, to make you reliant on the others. The one that's most important right now is your hearing" I nodded.

"I understand, this way you make what you're saying the most prominent thing in the room, making me concentrate on your words more than I might otherwise" I could hear the smile in Nat's voice.

"You're a lot smarter than you let on Jane, for all you sometimes play at the blue collar, dumb cop you're so much more than that. Maura told me you could have gone to Boston Cambridge so I checked your scores. Pretty much any degree you wanted, including medicine, you could have got into"

"Yeah well, I wanted to be a cop"

"Jane, I know the real reason" I thought about that, Maura had told her that? What else had she told her? Natalie must have read into my silence what I was thinking.

"Jane, Maura and I spent the bulk of the last three nights learning about you and Ana, swapping stories, our histories, our experiences, what we love about you both. We didn't do it to break confidences; we did it because we care, she loves you and I love Ana"

I thought about that, Maura trusted Natalie enough to talk about stuff like that, trusted her enough to send her to me to talk me through tonight. I thought about that for a while, while Nat gave me time to think.

I realised also that Natalie trusted Maura; she had opened herself up and talked about her life with Ana, probably the same mix of good and bad things that Maura had talked about. They trusted each other. That left the big question though.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Finally we get to the important question. Because Maura loves you Jane, the same way I love Ana. We have come to understand that neither you nor Ana understand exactly how worthy you are of being loved, of how you are Maura's equal and how she can't live without you" I heard the chair creak as she shifted in it.

"Maura is awed by the fact that you chose to love her, she wonders how she ever got so amazingly fortunate, how she was ever worthy enough to be yours"

"I'm the one who has to be worthy of her"

"Jane, what would happen to you if she left you?" I winced, the pain of the thought alone pierced right through me. Natalie must have seen it. "How well would you cope?" I thought about downplaying my response, until I realised that Natalie could see right through me, armed with all Maura had told her. Damn it.

"I'd fall apart" I remembered how bad it was when we were estranged after I shot Maura's biological father and that was back before we became lovers. Now it'd be infinitely worse. The words were difficult; it was hard to admit how weak I was. "I'd be an emotional cripple"

"Then what the hell makes you think Maura would be any better" I thought about that for a moment.

"Maura's one of the most competent people I've ever met, she made her way through life, becoming the person she is, the one I fell in love with, long before I came along. She'd still be that person, beautiful, smart and capable, if I wasn't here"

"Jane, that was before you became an essential part of her life. Now Maura has had your love, it's a drug she needs, she's an addict and you're the drug that makes life worth living. That's something I completely understand, I feel the same way about Ana" I nodded.

"Yeah, you two have a connection, you're good together"

"That's exactly what we thought about you and Maura; it was obvious from the moment we knew you, that you and her were made to be together. You each complete the other" I shrugged, tilting my head to one side.

"She's everything I've ever wanted, I love her"

"And she loves you. That's not the issue though; you don't understand how much you mean to Maura, she worships the ground you walk on Jane" I was surprised at the intensity of her words, as if she was desperate to convince me she was right. "Maura is awed that a woman of your strength, your power, your beauty, loves her"

"Of course I do, like I said, I'm really fortunate, I won the lottery"

"Exactly how Maura feels. You have to understand Jane, as much as you feel you're not really worthy of her, Maura feels the same way"

"What? But she's amazing, beautiful, brilliant, she's…everything. Anyone would want that, want her"

"Exactly the same thing could be said about you. You fit all of those same criteria; you could have been describing yourself" I snorted. Me?

"I'm nothing like her" Her laugh was quick and rich.

"Jane, who are you trying to kid? Me? I know too much about you for that to work"

"What do you mean?" I heard her chair creak as she stood up and walked around the table, I could hear her heels on the floor as she moved to stand behind me. I was unprepared though when her voice softly ghosted into my ear.

"Let's talk about all those men and woman who watch you stride into a room and take charge; they look at you and want you, those who aren't awed or intimidated by you" She was silent for a second, before her voice came to me from over the other shoulder, my head turning naturally to follow her voice.

"That silly reporter hitting on you back in Boston the night you and Maura came out as a couple, that woman at the Ball who couldn't stop fawning over you or that actress at The Intersection, all those other men and women who drool over you, they see you and want you Jane, because you're amazing" I shook my head at her words.

"I don't think so" I heard her sigh. I could hear her footsteps as she walked away for a moment before returning.

"Jane, your hands, please move them behind the chair back" I swallowed; I knew exactly what she was going to do.

"Why?"

"Trust Jane, that's why" I thought about it, before realising I really had no choice; I trusted Maura and Natalie was here as Maura's surrogate. I moved both hands behind the chair back and held them there.

"Thank you Jane" I felt her place a gentle kiss to the top of my head, surprising me, before taking one hand and fastening the cuff around it, the comforting softness of the fur around my wrist mitigating the unyielding firmness of the leather. Seconds later the other was cuffed and I was held in place.

I heard Natalie's heels as she walked around the space around me.

"Jane, I'm going to tell you something that no one else knows, not Ana, not Maura, no one" I turned my head to follow her footsteps as she walked up next to me.

Suddenly I felt her weight settle on my thighs, I could feel her thighs resting against mine as she straddled my legs, sitting on them facing me. I was unsure what was happening so as usual when I was out of my comfort zone I reverted to sarcasm.

"Comfy there?" Her voice was rich and low and amused.

"Oh very" I was feeling awkward, I could feel her body's warmth through the silk and was aware of how close she was, I could hear her gentle breathing in the silent room, so she must have been leaning in close, then she spoke quietly in a reflective tone, her mouth only inches from my ear.

"Jane, I have a sister, Lauren. She's pretty, smart, loving, all you could ever want in a sister. When she heard about Ana she couldn't understand why I'd switched teams, I hadn't had a gay thought in my life and then suddenly I'm sleeping with a woman? She was a bit...confused" I nodded, that's something I could understand, some of our family's still don't accept that me and Maura are together.

"That Christmas was the first one after Ana's father died, so she came with me to my parents place in Wyoming, Lauren was there as well. To say she was curious was an understatement, but after a couple of days she told me that she understood why I'd fallen for her, just how much we meant to each other, how wonderful a person she was" I nodded again.

"You two are good together, it's understandable to want someone like that in your life, everyone wants that"

"True, the marathon two and a half hour session we had in bed on Christmas Eve may also have something to do with it, we spent the entire time either fucking like mad or wrapped up in each other's arms making slow love" She laughed softly. "Unbeknown to us Lauren was in the next bedroom with her ear against the wall and her hand shoved down her panties the whole time"

I could hear the mirth in her voice at the memory, while I felt myself getting a little hot and bothered at the imagery. I fell back into my usual defence, sarcasm.

"Merry Christmas" I could hear the grin in her voice.

"Oh it was, very merry" She must have read my expression as she laughed, before settling herself back on my thighs and continuing.

"Lauren made me promise that if I ever found another Ana, man or woman, to call her immediately and she'd be on the next flight. I've only found one person I'd ever consider a match for Ana and suitable for my beautiful little sister, unfortunately you're taken"

I suddenly realised what she was saying and was speechless, I chewed my lip as I tried to work out what to say. Finally I managed to get the words out past the lump in my throat.

"Thank you"

"Don't thank me Jane, it's the truth. But that's not the secret I was going to tell you"

"Oh?" I didn't understand what she was getting at. Her voice was a soft purr in my ear.

"The secret is that even if you weren't taken, I wouldn't call Lauren. I'd keep you for myself" I felt myself stiffen in the chair, the word springing unbidden.

"What?" Her voice was even softer.

"If I wasn't with Ana and you were available, I'd do whatever it took to make you mine" I was still trying to grasp what she was saying, when I felt her lips on mine, a gentle, soft kiss. Before I could respond, it ended and Natalie stood, swinging her leg over mine and moving around me again. Finally I started to speak.

"Natalie…" Her voice was a soft whisper near my left ear.

"Hush Jane, just accept that you're extraordinarily desirable, that you're someone who everyone wants, Ana thinks you're wonderful, under other circumstances I'd want you and Maura, well she's the lucky one who managed to capture your heart"

I sat there, still trying to process everything that Natalie had said. To hear a woman that lovely say that she wants you, that you're someone she would desire and want to love, that's powerful. In this case it was also completely unexpected. Before I could speak she spoke again.

"There's only one reason I'm not consumed with envy, that's because in Ana I've found your equal. I love her more than I can ever put into words, so how could I possibly begrudge you and Maura having the same thing?"

I thought back to the love they shared, it was something special, two beautiful women who loved each other heart and soul, born to be together. We'd seen that almost from the first moment we'd met, they were so lucky to have each other, the same way we were.

"I'm blessed to love Maura and have her love back. Without her life'd have no meaning, I need her" I could hear the smile in Natalie's reply.

"And she needs you; fortunately neither of you are going anywhere so you're stuck with each other" I smiled, I couldn't imagine life without Maura in it, like I'd told Ana that day back at the range, Maura brought light and sunshine into my life, made the darkness fade away. To realise that she needed me as much as I needed her, it brought a calming peace to me, I felt the reality of that flow into me.

"I'm lucky, to have her, to know that she'll be there when I need her, to not be alone"

"Of course you're not alone; you and Maura are a matched set, just like Ana and I, you're only whole together" I heard the sound of her heels behind me as she strolled around me.

"Do you understand just how powerful your hold over Maura is? How much she adores you?" I went to say something when I felt a finger on my lips, stilling me. "No Jane, let me finish" I heard her heels move past me, then the creak of wood; Nat must be leaning against the table, her voice coming from in front of me.

"Maura loves it when you dominate her, take charge in the bedroom, fuck all the intellect out of her and leave her a wanting mess of emotional goo, curled in your arms" Nat chuckled for a moment. "I can't say I blame her, that sounds lovely" I swallowed, realising just how much Maura and Natalie had shared.

"She also loves it when you give up that dominance, hand control over to her, so she can tame you, if only for a moment. It's a sign of the total trust you have in her, which is something only she ever sees. Both of you love being in control, you're more overt about it, Maura more subtle, but both of you are dominants in your lives; you unconsciously dominate the people around you.

"That carries over into your bedroom. Maura adores it when you bend her over, hold her down, your strength as you force her to submit as you fuck her from behind with a strap on. And you get off doing it to her, having that control, that dominance, just as much as she does being dominated, made to submit to your needs"

I felt my cheeks burning, Maura had told Natalie that? Oh god, I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. I was trying to think of something to say when it got worse.

"The same way she gets off whipping your ass as you shove your face into a pillow to muffle your screams as she finger fucks your ass. To have the power to make a magnificent creature like you submit to her, to be under her control, the thought alone makes her soaking wet" I swallowed into a suddenly dry mouth. Oh god, she knew about that, I felt like I'd die of embarrassment. Natalia, unsurprisingly, was unfazed by my discomfort.

"But the part of you she loves the most is the when neither of you are in control, when your just two lovers, equals, sharing a life together. When both of you can let go of the outside persona's you show to the world, be the person you are when you're alone with her, with no need to be in control, no need to be defensive because you hold each other's lives in your hands, safe and secure" I could hear the wood creak as she levered herself off the table and moved to stand near me.

"Only Maura see you like that Jane, she's awed to be the one you trust enough to show her that side of you" Natalie's voice softened.

"And that's the reason why we'd never have worked Jane, I understand that the love you and Maura have isn't something either of you would have or could possibly have with anyone else"

I swallowed, understanding what she was saying. Maura needed me as much as I needed her. We were perfect for each other, together.

"Besides, you've ruined each other for anyone else. How could either of you settle for something less than what you already have" I nodded slowly, thinking it through.

"I couldn't. She's the only one" I remembered something Provenza had said at the Ball. "I'll never find another like her"

"Of course you won't and you won't have to, Maura aches for you the same way you crave her. She can't contemplate a life without you, the same way you couldn't imagine living without her"

"Maura and I need each other"

"Yes, but I'm also saying you deserve each other. You need to understand that Maura feels as grateful that you love her as you do that she loves you in return"

I nodded slowly. Maura had often told me that she was grateful for the changes in her life, that I was the one who had helped her become the person that she always wanted to be.

I remembered when we'd had our first fight, not long after we'd first got together. It was a stupid thing in retrospect, I'd not wanted to get dressed up in a dress and heels for a charity function, Maura had insisted and I'd eventually caved as I always did. We'd behaved as friends, not letting on how much more we were to each other, we hadn't told anyone we were a couple yet.

I'd seen several men hitting on Maura and it had got to me, my insecurities at work. We'd had some words about it on the way home which had blown up into a row, before I took myself off to the guest room. I was laying there, not able to sleep without her comforting presence next to me, berating myself for being a complete jerk, finally I couldn't stand it anymore and got up to apologise to Maura.

I'd heard her crying in the bedroom from the hall outside, opening the door to find her an emotional wreck, bawling her eyes out; the sight had broken my heart. Before I could apologise, she'd thrown herself into my arms, begging my forgiveness. It had only made me realise what an ass I'd been, not to mention love her more.

Now, looking back, I could see that Maura had been terrified that I'd not want to be with her, she'd been insecure about me sticking with her. I didn't understand it at the time but now I understood why.

"Maura didn't think she deserved me, did she?"

"Partly, same as you don't believe you deserve her" I nodded slowly, as the realisation crept over me.

"But we do deserve each other" Natalie's voice was soft and warm.

"That you do. You and Maura are equals in every way. More than equals, you compliment each other. You've each given something of yourself to the other, changed each other in so many ways, all good" I heard a ringing tone; she'd flicked the wine glass with her fingernail, the tone sharp and crisp.

"Since when did Jane Rizzoli drink red and like it? Maura Isles drinking beer and discussing football? You walking into a room full of your fellow officers in a stunning gown and heels and captivating everyone you meet? Maura charming people she's never met before and exuding confidence and charisma? None of that would have happened before you got together"

I sat there for a moment, as the realisation of what she was saying took hold. Maura and I needed each other, we needed to be together to be complete. We'd changed in so many ways, large and small, thanks to each other, I wasn't the person I'd been and neither was she; we were both better people for it.

I'd changed Maura, helped her be someone she'd wanted to become, helped her find the life she had always wanted. I doubt she'd ever imagined that she'd find happiness with an Italian-American female cop, same as I'd never imagined that I'd be completed by a woman who in so many ways was everything I'm not, but now, I couldn't imagine life without her and Maura felt the same way.

I was much happier and calmer than I'd ever been, Maura had given me a sense of belonging and contentment that I'd never had before. It seems that I'd managed to do the same for her; together we'd changed, all for the better. She'd changed for me and I'd changed, all because of her.

"She loves me, as much as I love her" Natalie's voice came softly to me, close to my ear.

"Yes she does, you love each other. That's the reason for tonight. You needed to understand that you deserve each other, that you're Maura's equal and her yours, that you are as much worthy of her love as she is of yours" Her voice moved away as she walked around me.

"That's why we set this up tonight. You needed to hear it from someone who knew as much about you both as anyone, someone you'd trust, someone who wants you both to be happy"

I nodded, I'd never really believed it before, but Natalie, knowing so much about us, could spell it out, help me see what she and Maura already knew. That's what Maura had meant in her letter. I'd needed to learn what she already knew, how much we deserved, wanted and needed each other.

"I am lucky…and so is she" I could hear the gentle satisfaction in Natalie's voice as she walked towards me.

"Exactly"

I felt her lips on mine, chaste, gentle and tender, before she pulled back. I tried not to miss the contact as I heard her heels move around behind me.

"Let's get you out of these Jane" My wrists moved as she undid the cuffs, first one then the other, I automatically brought them round and up into my lap as they were freed, as Natalie undid the sleep mask, before lifting it carefully away, giving me time to let my eyes adjust to the brightness.

I looked round to see her standing there, Beautiful and tall and lovely, a small smile on her face. I felt a rush of affection for Natalie; she cared, in a way so few ever had. Maura and I were so lucky, to have a friend like her, someone we could always count on to be there for us.

Without thinking I stood and turned, dragging her into a hug, just holding her as her arms wrapped around me, feeling her here with me for a moment, before she slowly stepped away. Her eyes were bright and glittered with a hint of unshed tears as she smiled at me before reaching out a hand.

"C'mon Jane, let's go find our better halves"


	86. Chapter 86

**Dinner Discussions part 2**

Maura's viewpoint

Anastasia was right on time, as I knew she would be, in fact we were counting on it, as Jane would arrive barely ten minutes behind her and we did not want them to know that they were attending the same location.

Standing at a window, I saw her emerge from the car looking stunning; long and lean in her heels and pants while the silver-grey blouse would compliment her eyes.

I turned to Natalie who was standing next to me, taking her in. She looked as lovely as always but I could tell she was as nervous as I. There was a lot at stake tonight, but we both felt we had to do this, for all of our sakes. I smiled at her.

"Well, here goes, wish me luck" She reached out and pulled me into a tight hug, trying to convey all we felt for each other and our lovers into a single gesture, one I returned equally strongly.

I had come to love Natalie, she was, with Alexandra, the sisters I had never had. I knew I could always count on them to be there when I needed them, the same as I would for them. It was not the same as my love for Jane, it was a trust and a comfort and the knowledge that we would always be there for each other. Finally she stood back, her voice a little unsteady.

"Good luck Maura, take care of her for me" I swallowed through the lump in my throat and nodded.

"And please, be gentle with Jane, she's not a big one for showing her emotions" She nodded and we stepped apart before she smiled gently.

"Always"

Picking up my bag of accessories I stepped out into the hall and made my way down the mansion's many corridors, pausing at a full-length hanging mirror to make sure I still looked presentable. Like Natalie I was wearing a white pant suit, with a forest green blouse rather than her electric blue. I tugged my jacket down, making sure there were no creases showing before resuming my journey to an open door and the room where Anastasia awaited.

I knew she could hear my steps on the marble floor, so it was no surprise that Anastasia was looking at the door when I arrived. I smiled at her and strode to the table as she stood in gentle courtesy, looking lovely in her dark suit. I could see the curiosity in her grey eyes as the waiter held my chair as I was seated.

"Good evening Maura" I smiled but said nothing until she was seated and we were left alone as I noted the opened letter from Natalie on the table. I knew what it said; I had helped in drafting it.

"Good evening Anastasia, I am very pleased you could join me tonight" I could see her taking that in and thinking it over.

"I take it Jane and Nat won't be joining us tonight then?" I smiled; she always was quick on the uptake.

"Perhaps later in the evening, but not just yet" She nodded carefully as there was a discreet knock on the door and a waiter entered with a white for Anastasia and a red for me. We smiled at each other as he withdrew, before Anastasia picked up her glass of white and held it up to me in salute.

"So, you and me here tonight, what shall we discuss?" I smiled, saluting her in turn before we both savoured our wine, mine was a nice vintage. I looked over the rim at her, before I smiled.

"How about a woman named Natalie" Anastasia smiled easily in return.

"One of my favourite subjects" I nodded slowly as I placed the wine down on the table next to the small black bag, seeing her eyes flick over it, her curiosity evident but held in check.

"I am sure, a beautiful woman, who has managed to fall in love with someone equally beautiful" Anastasia nodded in return.

"I'm unbelievably fortunate"

"As is she" I could see the gentle shrug as she deflected the praise before smiling softly.

"Anyway, I don't need you trying to turn my head, that's Nat's job" I nodded as she placed her glass back on the table.

"Yes, a shame that you do not believe it, is it not?" Anastasia frowned.

"Remember the old adage, flattery will get you nowhere"

"Perhaps, but not if the flattery, as you put it, is in fact true" Her frown deepened.

"I'm not following you Maura"

"What you call flattery, Natalie and I would call simple truth"

"The truth is Natalie is breathtaking, I'm lucky we're together. I'm blessed, no other word to describe it"

"Breathtaking, an interesting word choice, to take one's breath away. That is what you do to Natalie. She gives thanks everyday that she wakes up next to you, there are times she simply stops and stares at you, while you are asleep or while you are not aware she is doing so, your attention elsewhere, simply to take you in, to remind herself that she is not dreaming and that you are real" Anastasia was looking very uncomfortable.

"Uh, she's my dream come true"

"Yes, she is the stuff of dreams, of fantasy made real, as are you. You have stoked more than your fair share of dreams and fantasies, for Natalie most assuredly and no doubt for many others, both singly and as a couple"

"We look good together, she makes me look good"

"Anastasia, you have a body that gives pause to those who see it, despite your efforts to downplay it, matched with your looks, you are a stunning woman" Anastasia shrugged, looking somewhat embarrassed.

"I try and stay fit, the curves, well they're a bonus and Nat likes them" I smirked, remembering Natalie's enthusiastic description of those same curves.

"Oh indeed she does, having described them to me, at some length, in mouth-watering detail" I could see a small look of surprise pass over Anastasia's face at my words. She was going to hear a lot more this evening before we were done. "Natalie, as she has described it to me, is in fawning, drooling lust with your body, unable to get enough of it"

Anastasia chewed her lip for a moment, not exactly sure what to say. Before she could speak I kept going.

"Natalie also told me that the fact that the woman she is so deeply in love with is so beautiful makes her unbelievably grateful. As you are aware, Natalie loves you, she loves the amazing person that you are inside, the stunning person on the outside is a very happy bonus for her" She smiled nervously; I could tell I was pulling her outside her comfort zone.

"I just want her to be happy" I smiled, '_of course you do_'.

"Oh she is my friend, very, very happy. The fact is though that the beauty on the outside is but a pale reflection of the person on the inside. Natalie is in awe that she loves and is loved by someone so wonderful"

"We're both lucky we found each other, we make each other complete, same as you and Jane" I smiled.

"That you do, there is one thing I do envy about Natalie and your relationship though" Her eyes widened in surprise.

"What the hell would you envy about us; you two are amazingly good together" I smiled.

"Thank you, we are that. However we wasted so much time, dancing around our feelings, afraid of our attraction. We wasted three years Anastasia; unlike you and Natalie; you went from first meeting to admitting your love in four months" Anastasia made a 'helpless' gesture with her hands.

"Those four months felt like four years. I wanted her as my friend, never thought we'd have more. I was stunned when Natalie told me that night she wanted me, I'd never thought I'd have a chance with her" I tilted my head to one side, taking her in.

"May I ask why not?" Anastasia looked perplexed, as if it was self-evident.

"Because she's so beautiful, why'd she possibly want me? She could've had anyone, but somehow she chose me. I still don't really understand exactly what she saw that made me the one for her, not compared to so many other people" I shook my head sadly.

"Your modesty is refreshing, but misplaced. Natalie found in you the partner she had been looking for, the one who saw past the looks to see the person inside. You were the first person to do that. Everyone else wanted the beautiful woman; you wanted the whole Natalie, good and bad" Anastasia shook her head abruptly.

"She's all good, there's no bad in her"

"Natalie would beg to disagree with you"

"I don't think there's bad in her" She held up her hand, stilling me. "Yes I know, that's my opinion, but it's what I feel" I frowned slightly; this was going to be a challenge.

"You also stated that you couldn't see what someone so beautiful could see in you. Did it ever occur to you that Natalie thought the same thing about you? What someone as beautiful, strong and dedicated as you could see in someone like her?"

"I'm the lucky one, she's beautiful, at my best I'm kinda pretty on a good day" I couldn't help it, rolling my eyes at her words.

"You and Jane are far more alike than you might think. You both downplay your beauty, especially compared to Natalie and I, quite frankly I have to say it is ridiculous the extent to which both of you deny your value" She lifted an eyebrow at me.

"What do you mean?"

"Natalie and I are of the firm opinion that you and Jane are both truly beautiful women, at least our equal, perhaps even more" I watched her eyes widen in surprise.

"There is no way that I'm your equal; or Nat's, both of you are stunning"

"As are you" She shook her head adamantly.

"Not like her, not like you" I sat back and steepled my fingers as I looked over them at her.

"Well, we both disagree. At the very least, you are our equals, but where Natalie and I have to work at it, with clothes and makeup and hair and all the artifices of the beauty industry, you and Jane do it through natural looks, power and an inner strength that I am in awe of" Anastasia leaned forward, surprise evident on her face.

"Maura, you're stunning, you look beautiful anytime, when you put your mind to it, like at the Ball, you're amazing" She shrugged. "As for Natalie, well she's just…Nat. What can I say?" I smiled; she had given me an opening.

"Let me take you back to the Ball then Anastasia, seeing as you raised it. I was standing there with Natalie and Brenda, we were admiring you both, Jane in that lovely red gown, you in that wonderful white dress. You were stunning, we all agreed on that, but it wasn't just us." I reached forward and picked up my glass, taking a small sip of wine to moisten my lips before continuing.

"As we watched, you and Jane captivated a group of men, some from Major Crimes and others from different sections of the LAPD. They were not drawn to Natalie and I, they were pulled to Jane and you. You drew them to you both because you have a power, a presence about you. Charisma, Anastasia, is what you both have; natural charisma. Others are drawn to it, to both of you, I was, Natalie was and those officers were; it's what you do" She snickered.

"Mostly what drew them to us was that they were single men and we were standing there. It had very little to do with charisma and lots to do with them thinking with their dicks" I tilted my head to regard her.

"If that was true, why did they not approach Natalie and I? Based on what you are saying they should have bypassed both of you and come to us, but they did not"

"Maybe they thought you and Natalie were out of their league, which you are" I could see we were going around in circles about this; perhaps another tack was in order.

"In this case I would beg to disagree with you; however we were discussing why Natalie is besotted with you, why you are the one who, of all the men and women who have pursued her, she has willingly chosen to be her soul mate, to be together with for the rest of your lives"

"Like I said, I'm blessed. Same as Jane is to love you" I smiled at her words.

"Both of you are strong and powerful. You have both survived things that might have broken a lesser person"

I regarded her for a moment, pleased to have this time to be with her without distraction, I had admired Anastasia even before Natalie and I spoke, after hearing all that Natalie knows and feels for her, I respect and admire her even more now, for a life lived in pursuit of the right thing no matter what.

"In your case two war zones, the scorn of your peers for doing what was right during the Abu Ghraib trials, walking away from your chosen career with the army because it was the correct thing to do, then building a new one with the FBI. And that was before you nearly lost your life trying to catch that criminal in Seattle" She pulled a wry face.

"Not exactly one of my finer moments"

"Perhaps, but you were once again doing what you felt was right" She shook her head.

"No, not really, if I'd done what was right I'd have waited for backup, for my partner to catch up, instead of charging in like a damned fool" I sat back to regard her.

"You did what had to be done, under the circumstances" Her answer was a surprise.

"I actually cost us the investigation. If I hadn't had to kill him, we would have found out who was the next person in that chain, maybe found out where they were taking the missing girls and found some more of them. The truck driver later confessed that he'd brought more than a dozen girls to Seattle, we never found any of them"

"Did anyone blame you for what happened there?"

"I did, I lay in that room in the hospital and realised that I'd fucked it all up, nearly got killed and messed up the investigation all at the same time" I raised an eyebrow at her.

"Did others express that opinion to you?" Anastasia looked away.

"They didn't have to, I did and that's all that matters"

"I think that you are being excessively hard on yourself. If you had waited for backup, then the suspect may well have escaped, leaving you without the next link in the evidence chain"

"We may have caught up with him later" I realised what Natalie had said about some unresolved issues, Anastasia was a perfectionist, she never accepted anything other than her best and she felt she had not delivered her best in something so important. Unfortunately I doubt it was something I could resolve tonight.

"You may not have either, however if we are to descend into suppositions and what might have been then we could be here all night and be no closer to resolving anything, could you agree with that?" She glanced down at the table for a moment, before slowly looking up.

"I guess" I changed tack.

"That incident, no matter how it may or may not have played out differently, had a major consequence for both Natalie and yourself, did it not" She winced.

"Yeah, I scared her, terrified her actually, showed her the risks of being involved with a cop"

"Perhaps, you also showed Natalie just how important you were to her, how much you mean to her"

"She's everything to me, the thought of losing her was scary, I didn't want to do that to her again"

"In turn Natalie found the thought of losing the person she had waited all her life to find utterly horrifying. To have had your love, your support, the centrality of your presence and intimacy in her life, then to have to contemplate that being removed, gone forever, is it any wonder she eventually fell apart?"

I could see Anastasia was no longer with me for a moment, looking back into a very unpleasant past, a place filled with bad memories. I tried yet another tack.

"Anastasia, why do you think Natalie is often so desperately frenzied when making love to you? It's because she has seen what life without you would be like, that thought terrifies her. Every time that you make love to her, it is an affirmation that you are with her, alive, loving, hers" Anastasia looked terribly uncertain.

"Uh, Maura, I'm not sure…"

"Natalie and I have spent a lot of time together recently, learning all we can about both Jane and yourself. Natalie has told me about you, the good, the bad, the public and the private you. I have been privileged to learn about the strong, honourable and fearless woman you are, it makes me appreciate just how fortunate Natalie is to be worthy of your love" She frowned.

"Hey, I'm the one who has to be worthy of her "

"Natalie does not believe that for a moment, you made her a better person, made her want to change to be someone worthy of you, someone you would be willing to accept as your partner, your lover and your soulmate"

"Nat didn't have to change for that, she was always someone special, she didn't need me for that" I shrugged.

"Natalie's life was stagnant until she met you, yes she had a career as a journalist, but it was not a life choice that she believed was making a difference. She felt that she was marking time and that eventually, if she was lucky, she would meet a man she would love, becoming a mother and settling down to raise 2.5 children" I shrugged.

"That was the good option. The one she feared was that she would end up as a newsreader or program host on television, employed for her looks, not her intellect and be a trophy wife to a rich man who came home between times spent with his secretary or his mistress, trapped in a sterile, loveless marriage."

At Anastasia's appalled look, I spread my hands in a gesture.

"Apparently that is not unknown in her industry, with the inordinate emphasis on looks that accompanies it" Anastasia shook her head vehemently.

"Nat's not like that at all, she's way better than that"

"At the time she met you Natalie would have disagreed with your assessment. Instead into her life stormed a dashing, passionate and beautiful FBI agent and suddenly her world turned upside down, never to be the same again" Anastasia coloured slightly.

"Well we were there for each other; that siege was what brought us together" I nodded agreeably

"Yes it was, but it was not what kept you together, was it? What kept you together was that you were stronger together than separately" Anastasia nodded slowly.

"We complimented each other. She brought light and happiness back into my life"

"And what do you think Natalie received from you in return?"

"Someone to love her, keep her grounded, someone to be there when she needed it" I couldn't help it; I burst out laughing at her words, getting a perplexed look from Anastasia. Finally I subsided.

"Oh Anastasia, how can someone as intelligent and observant as you be so blind? I swear you and Jane are so alike I find it uncanny"

"What do you mean?"

"Sometimes you are too busy putting yourselves down that you cannot see the truth in front of you, just like Jane" Her face screwed up in confusion, which I found quite adorable.

"I'm not following you"

"Quite obviously; the reason we are having this discussion tonight, rather than being with our respective lovers, is that while at the Ball, Brenda, Natalie and I became aware of the disconnect between how you see yourselves and how we and the rest of the world see you" I held up my hand to forestall her immediate denial. "In particular the disparity between how you see Natalie and Jane sees me on one hand and how we see you on the other" Anastasia sat back, watching me, curiosity evident in her striking grey eyes.

"Go on" I smiled.

"Natalie is having a similar discussion with Jane right now, one I hope goes well, given Jane's almost pathological inability to see her worth I do hope she succeeds. Fortunately I have every faith in Natalie, Jane trusts her and she adores Jane in return" I leaned back as Anastasia took in my words.

"The same way I adore you, you are a wonderful person Anastasia, one I am privileged to call my friend" She blushed, obviously embarrassed by my words.

"I'm the one who's privileged, you and Jane are wonderful people and great friends" I smiled.

"And right there you demonstrate the problem. You do not see that you are someone who everyone wants to know, to be close to and to be friends with"

"That's Natalie, she's the magnetic one; I'm the one who comes as part of the package. They see her and they want to be close to her, that means that they have to accept me as part of the deal" I sighed, loudly.

Part of me just wanted to get Anastasia and shake her, to make her see, how could she be so blind? I sighed again, much softer this time. Natalie had told me that Anastasia had a lot of denial to overcome.

"If that is true, why do the men in Major Crimes so enjoy your company? They have worked more closely with you than Natalie since you have arrived. The same is true of other areas across the LAPD; I hear the comments about you around the headquarters and across the department"

"Well, that's just gossip"

"Anastasia, I do not just sit in the morgue all day waiting for bodies to arrive, I visit areas across the LAPD, I lecture, train others on correctly dealing with the deceased at crime scenes plus I consult and advise, during which I talk to people across all levels of the department, somewhat similar to the way Natalie does. We hear similar things, I hear the comments about you, she about Jane"

"Well, I suppose it's to be expected, cops with too much time on their hands and nothing better to do"

"They find you attractive, hardly a surprise. However they also find you approachable, you speak to each officer, irrespective of their rank as an equal, not talking down to them, nor do you brush them off, instead giving freely of your time and expertise. You willingly offer your help and assistance across the Department" I took another small sip of wine before continuing.

"Your willingness to go that extra distance to make the full resources of the FBI available has been noted and is much appreciated"

"It's what I do, that's my job"

"Yes it is, but your commitment to excellence, to never giving less than your best at whatever you do, is a part of you, a part that Natalie deeply admires. It is one of the things that drew her to you when you first became friends" She shrugged, downplaying my words.

"It's what I was taught as a kid, if you don't give 100% then don't bother" I raised an eyebrow.

"But you do, do you not? To your work, your life and to Natalie"

"Of course I do, she's worth it"

"A sentiment that Natalie returns, you are worth everything to her, worth enough for her to do anything necessary to ensure you remain a central part of your life together" Anastasia gave me a half smile.

"We love each other"

"That you do, it is obvious to everyone who watches you both, your love for Natalie is only matched by her love for you, your commitment to each other is enviable"

"Hey, no need to envy us, you and Jane have the same thing going" I smiled.

"That we do, however there is one thing I do envy Natalie about" Anastasia smiled gently.

"What would that be?"

"She tells me that you can be a remarkably sensual, uninhibited lover, something that I hope Jane will become" She frowned at that.

"You have got to be kidding me. I heard you and Jane together that night, from the screams you were making there's no way she's not good in bed" I smiled at the memory of that night. "See, look at you, it's written on your face, you sure as hell have no complaints there" I laughed.

"Generally no, however I was the one who introduced Jane into many of the things we now enjoy, Jane had a quite repressed upbringing sexually, bringing her out of her shell, so to speak, has been one of my duties as her partner, one of the more pleasurable ones actually" Anastasia smirked knowingly.

"I'm sure it has been"

"But Jane is still quite repressed sexually; she is quite insecure with my acceptance of anything she may wish to experiment with, whereas I am quite willing to try almost anything at least once" I noticed Anastasia's smile change slightly and wondered at it.

"Given some of the things she was moaning that night, I'd believe that, something about how good your tongue was. Seems like Jane has no problems letting you do whatever you want" I narrowed my eyes at Anastasia, wondering what she was up to.

"As I said, Jane has become much more open in the time we have been together. By the time we have been together as long as Natalie and yourself, I have no doubt that she will be as uninhibited as you"

"Natalie makes it easy, making her happy is all that matters, something I'm sure Jane would say about you. God knows she made you happy enough that night. We want a rematch too by the way" I raised an eyebrow, '_oh __did they__ now…_'.

"Really, I thought we were happy enough to call it a draw?" I smiled, as Anastasia raised an eyebrow in return.

"Best two out of three?" I smiled even wider at her enthusiasm.

"I would welcome another night like that, although I suspect that this time we may have company"

"Ah yes, Sharon and Brenda, Nat told me. That'll be interesting"

"Indeed, I hope that they are not put off by what we may be doing" Anastasia laughed.

"I don't think so, we found it pretty inspirational actually, hopefully they will too"

I suddenly realised what Anastasia was doing. She had managed to shift the focus of our time together from her to a more general discussion. Natalie had told me that Anastasia was skilled at this, no doubt from much practise on her over the years. I smiled.

"You are very good at that Anastasia" My sudden change of topic caught her by surprise.

"What exactly?"

"Deflection, we were talking about you"

"Ah, enough of that, let's talk about more interesting things"

"Very well then, let us talk about Anastasia the lover, the woman who has made Natalie remarkably happy and content" I could tell she was uncomfortable with where the discussion was going, but I thought it might put her off balance enough to allow me to take the upper hand.

"I work hard to make sure she has no complaints"

"I can attest that Natalie indeed has no complaints, in fact she sings your praises, your ability to leave her completely and utterly devastated after a wild night of passion is…enviable" Her cheeks flushed, however before she could interrupt I continued, eager to put her on the back foot.

"Natalie had numerous male sexual partners, a description which I use very carefully, before she met you Anastasia. Some were good, some bad, one or two were exceptionally skilled at satisfying her. Then you arrived and almost as soon as you became lovers you redefined what Natalie understood as skilled" I smiled broadly as Anastasia swallowed nervously.

"You can have her wet and wanting with a loaded glance, with a few whispered words have her begging you to fuck her, desperately screaming your name in the throes of passion, you were everything she had looked for in a lover" She turned her gaze down at the table, before looking up at me nervously.

"I had good reason to make her happy, I still do, her happiness is everything to me"

"She would say the same thing about you. That is why she has never once said no to any of the things you have suggested that you both do over the years, all she wants is to make you happy"

"Nat's a wonderful lover, giving, loving, generous, she could make anyone happy"

"I'm sure; she would suggest that she has come far under your tutelage, your guidance"

"She was wonderful, I didn't do much" I smiled to myself; that was not what Natalie had disclosed, some of her descriptions had been quite…explicit, not to mention arousing; quite obviously Anastasia had a wickedly inventive, kinky streak. I had every intention of pursuing some of those experiences with Jane in the future.

"Indeed, but with you, you are the one who suggests many of the things you do together are you not?" Anastasia looked a little nervous; on her it looked quite lovely.

"Well, I had a bit more experience when we started, with women anyway"

"Something Natalie happily admits, she also admits that you have unleashed much of her wilder side. Weren't you the one who introduced her to toys, bondage, role play, some aspects of fetish play and the like?" I watched as she blushed, not exactly sure how much we had discussed.

"Natalie has stated that she loves everything that you have taught her and that your skill and knowledge have made her a better lover"

"She was pretty damned good to start with"

"Once again Natalie would disagree. She wouldn't have recognised nipple clamps or ben wah balls or a feeldoe when she first met you, let alone been happy buying them for you as a surprise, or using them together" Anastasia's cheeks flared red.

"Oh. Um, well…"

"Embarrassed, really? Oh Anastasia please, we are both grown, experienced women. Besides, based on Natalie's descriptions I am rather jealous of her, you are an exceptional lover, one that satisfies her every need" She shrugged, trying to make light of my words.

"That's both my job and my pleasure"

"And hers as well, from what she has told me" Anastasia sat back with her hands clenched in front of her, as she looked at me levelly over her clasped fingers.

"Maura, what exactly did you two talk about?"

"As I said, you, the things that Natalie loves about you, the reasons that she gives thanks every day for the amazing good fortune that gifted you to her, the desperate hunger she has for you and the eternal gratitude that she has for the simple fact that you love her"

Anastasia's mouth dropped open for a moment before she gathered her wits.

"She's everything I ever hoped and dreamed for, she's a wish come true, I'm humbled to be hers"

"Almost as much as Natalie is to belong to you heart and soul; as you may recall I asked you earlier what Natalie receives from you in return for her love?" Anastasia's reply was drawn out and questioning.

"Yes…?"

"Natalie has spoken to me at length about what she receives from you that makes her love you more than life itself. She receives your pure, unconditional love; you love all of her, including the parts that no one else sees, the fears, the flaws, her issues and insecurities"

I held up a finger, cutting off her reply.

"In addition, you have allowed her to be there for you Anastasia; you have always been the strong independent woman, never asking for help, never accepting it, always making your own, lone way through life. But you chose to let her in, allowed her to be the one that you opened up to, let her see you vulnerable and hurt and needing" Anastasia was utterly silent.

"Natalie is the only person you ever let see you like that, she is in awe of your strength, not the strength that you possess that carries through your day to day life, but the strength that allows you to be vulnerable and raw and open with her. The love you have to let her see you like that, well that breaks her heart, it also makes her love you over and over again"

Anastasia swallowed before she went to speak, her voice thick with emotion.

"I had to Maura; Natalie proved to me that I didn't have to face everything alone. No one else cared enough to want to help me shoulder the burden. She saw a hole inside me and filled it with her love, made me whole again, I was a mess when we first met, I'm who I am today because of her"

"And she is who she is today because of you. You gave her a life to be proud of, doing something meaningful with her life, trying to make a difference. You gave her a reason to be someone she wasn't, but wanted to be. Each day she strives to be the person she needs to be, to be worthy of you, to be worthy of your love"

Anastasia looked down at the table, obviously taking in what we'd discussed.

"She's more than worthy, every day I look at her and wonder how I got so lucky, to have someone so good love me" I smiled; I felt we were finally making progress.

"The same as she does with you. You are everything that Natalie has ever wanted" I shook my head. "No, you are far more than she wanted. You filled every criterion for the lover she dreamed of, but you were far more than that. You have expanded her horizons of what love is, made her see that love is much more than she had ever imagined"

I could see Anastasia was searching for the right response, instead I pressed on before she could try and deflect away again.

"Natalie changed who she was; who she could be, to be the person worthy of you. You made her a better person, more caring, more selfless, more responsible and more compassionate. Natalie is who she is today because of you Anastasia" I smiled. "Natalie told me that almost word for word last night, how can you deny that truth?" Anastasia looked down at the floor, her voice soft.

"She didn't have to change anything, she was perfect already"

"Anastasia, that's the voice of your love for her speaking. You love her so much that there was no need for her to change, in your eyes she was already worthy of your love, but not in Natalie's. She had fallen in love with someone so wonderful, so amazing, that simply being with you made her want to change, to be a better person. You, through your example, made that happen"

"But why, she didn't have to change" She shook her head. "I loved her as she was"

"Natalie changed because she needed to be worthy of you, to know that you approved of her" I held up my hand. "I understand that you did not think that necessary, but you have to understand the situation from Natalie's viewpoint. You are everything that she ever sought in a person; the fact that you were a woman meant less to her than the fact that you were everything admirable and desirable in a life mate.

"What are you trying to say Maura?" I smiled.

"I am telling you that as much as you believe you are not worthy of her, Natalie believes she is not worthy of your love" As I expected Anastasia's denial was quick.

"Of course she is, she deserves it, she deserves to be loved, cherished"

"Yes she does, the same way you are worthy of her love. You are both destined for one another, both need each other to be all you can be, who you should be. You each make the other a better person, you make each other whole"

"All I've ever wanted is to make her happy"

"Exactly the same as Natalie's hope for you, your happiness is her primary concern"

"She didn't have to change anything, she was already perfect"

"Perfect for you, as you are perfect for her" Anastasia was silent for a period, I let her be to think, I could tell she was starting to realise what I was getting at. Finally she spoke.

"So you're saying that we need to be together?"

"I'm saying you have to be together. It is obvious that you have eyes for no one other than Natalie, she in turn, for all her flirtatious banter, could no more consider being with anyone other than you, such is your love for each other. You are each less than whole apart, only complete together" She nodded slowly.

"So my insecurities are the problem?"

"Partly, you doubt your worthiness to be Natalie's lover; she in turn has doubts about her worth to be yours. Natalie has always striven to live up to the ideals she has envisioned you deserve in a lover. In the same way you have always striven to be everything Natalie needs in a soul mate, both of you so wrapped up in trying to be perfect for each other that you do not see that you already are everything you have both sought out all your life" Anastasia sat there, gazing at me for a while, taking it in. Finally I spoke.

"Jane and I watched you, from the moment we saw you together, we realised you have a love so deep as to almost defy description. Each willing to die for the other, which is why you live each day for each other"

"Natalie is the most important thing in the world to me, nothing else matters compared to her" I sat back, feeling a broad smile break out.

"That is almost exactly the words that Natalie used to me not so long ago; you are the only important thing in the world to her" I leaned forward, eager to hammer home the point.

"You both have to simply understand that neither of you have to strive to meet the others expectations, both of you have already far exceeded anything you could have ever sought in a lover. You each seek to be the others perfection, but you already are"

Anastasia sat for a moment, opening her mouth to say something, then closing it, obviously reconsidering her response. I could see her eyes narrow in thought as she took in what I had said, considering it, the implications, thinking them through.

She sat there for a long while; I could feel the minutes pass as I let her think. This was not something I could hurry; she had to process this herself. I sipped my wine as she pondered, before she finally looked up, catching my eye.

"You're saying Natalie wants to be worthy of me, the same as I want to be worthy of her, but we already are"

"Yes you are" She nodded slowly, clearly thinking it through.

"So what now?"

"You need to accept that you and Natalie are equals, you are in every way each other's compliment, your personalities, your looks, your attitudes, outlooks and your physical attributes are a matched set" I smiled at her.

"Individually, both of you are strong, beautiful and accomplished women, attracting admiration and envy from all who you meet. Together however, you are a devastating combination, you both shine brighter together. People who meet you as a couple are almost intimidated that two women so special can be even more special together" Anastasia was blushing furiously at the praise, drawing a chuckle. "You also need to learn to accept honest compliments"

"One step at a time Maura, one step at a time" I smiled at her words.

I knew we hadn't covered everything that I might have hoped, but we had made much progress tonight and for that I was grateful. Perhaps it was time to draw the curtain down on this act and up on the next.

"So Anastasia, shall we go and see what Natalie and Jane are up to?" She smiled and stood easily, stepping around the table to hold my chair for me as I stood.

"Of course, I'm sure they had as interesting an evening as we did" I smiled as her wording could be taken multiple ways, I was sure it was intended that way, as her swift grin attested.

"I'm sure they did" I stood there for a moment smiling at her, taking her in, so lovely, inside and out, Natalie was so blessed. She was so much like Jane, which reminded me…

"There is one more thing I would like to say Anastasia" She turned and smiled softly at me, her voice warm.

"Yes?"

"I am quite sure that if we had met each other, before we met Natalie and Jane, I would have been drawn to you. You share many of the traits that Jane possesses, the things that drew me to her, would have attracted me to you" She considered it for a moment.

"I don't think so, what you and Jane have is special"

"As is what you and Natalie have together. What I have that is special is that I was attracted to a woman who is strong, passionate, dominant, loving and caring. It all sounds rather like Natalie's description of you actually"

"Why don't we agree that we both love very special women and leave it at that?" I smiled gently at her.

"As you wish" We shared a moment before I leaned forward on an impulse, kissing her and drawing a soft, shy smile in return.

"Thank you Maura"

"No Anastasia, thank you, for loving Natalie and for being our friend"

"It's truly my privilege and honour" I ducked my head at her words, we were so fortunate to have both Natalie and Anastasia in our lives.

"Let us go and find our lovers"

"Incidentally Maura…" I looked up at her enquiring tone. "What's in the black bag" She motioned to where I had hung it from my wrist.

I smiled at her honest curiosity. "Something I'm sure Natalie will take great pleasure in showing you, perhaps later tonight" She nodded slowly, peering at me from half lidded eyes. Finally she nodded decisively.

"Well let's go find them, before they get into any more trouble" I laughed.

"Oh Anastasia, how much more trouble could those two get into?" She just looked at me, one eyebrow rising. I laughed even harder as I considered what I'd said."Good point; let's go get them"

At that Anastasia wrapped an arm around my shoulder, pulling me close as we strode forward, laughing together, out of the room and into the rest of our night.


	87. Chapter 87

**A/N **The wonderful characters of 'The Closer' and 'Rizzoli and Isles' belong to their respective rights holders, no infringement is intended, but as always, thanks for letting us have our way with them, if only for a moment.

A quick thanks to Kyra Sedgwick, Mary McDonnell, Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander for the warmth and depth you bring to the portrayals of our favourite detectives.

**Slow and sexy Saturdays**

Sharon's viewpoint

It was a beautiful Saturday morning, the weather was lovely without a cloud in the sky, hot but not too hot, just made for a casual day out with friends, or in this case, girlfriend.

Brenda and I had made plans to spend the day together; unfortunately she'd been busy last night wrapping up paperwork on her current case, proving the horror movie producer's son had killed him after she'd broken him in the interrogation room yesterday afternoon.

Apparently he'd tried to make it look like the work of a crazed fan, but his own cocaine habit was bleeding him financially and his father had cut him off last month, trying to force him to go into rehab. Instead he'd decided to get rid of his father and inherit the money.

It meant that we'd not had the chance to be together last night which, while I'd got the chance to do some shopping and cleaning done last night, also meant I'd had a lonely night's sleep; something I was looking forward to not repeating tonight.

I'd just finished a coffee and texted Brenda that I'd be over around 11 when I was surprised by the doorbell ringing. It turned out to be a parcel guy with a delivery for a 'Sharon Johnson'; I smiled, both at the name and the knowledge of what was inside the parcel.

Thanking the guy I closed the door with almost unseemly haste and carried the discreet brown package inside and set it on the counter.

Carefully opening it I smiled at the contents; after Brooke and I had split up, I threw out all the toys, way too many memories there and I didn't want to be faced by what they signified. Now though, I had a chance to break in a whole new set with Brenda.

I grinned, shopping online with Brenda for sex toys had proven one of the hardest but most fun things we'd done together.

Hard because my mad blonde girlfriend had a wicked imagination and had continually distracted me from the screen as we'd 'debated' the pros and cons of each toy and their possible uses, at length and in some depth. It'd been fun for exactly the same reasons.

The name on the box had been her idea as well, 'plausible deniability' she'd called it, getting the patented Raydor eye roll in return, but inwardly I'd smiled that Brenda could be that mushy and silly with me.

I spent some time getting them all washed and cleaned, before settling them in the bedside drawers. I had to relocate my underwear elsewhere to make room, but it was a small sacrifice, especially compared to the multitude of orgasms I could see resulting from their easy to reach placement, which more than made up for any inconvenience.

I'd finally had a quick shower and got changed into cool cotton slacks, a loose blouse and strappy low heels before grabbing the other set of car keys from their hook and locking up. I'd decided that as the weather was so good, I'd take my car rather than the work issue Crown Vic. To be honest I hated the LAPD sedans, they drove like tanks and were only marginally more comfortable, instead preferring something a little sportier.

In this case that translated into my old black 3-series BMW convertible hiding in the garage, a foolish indulgence I'd bought a decade ago and never been able to let go of. She had remarkably few miles on the clock for her age, given I didn't drive her often, mostly when I was feeling happy. If being with Brenda was going to have me in the state I was in now, I could see it being driven a lot more often.

I'd texted Brenda while stopped at a set of lights, letting her know I was close so she was waiting for me outside her apartment block when I pulled up.

She was wearing a floral sundress, wide brimmed hat and sandals, her hair loose, looking relaxed and lovely. Getting in she leaned across and gave me a quick peck, before settling back and tossing her bag and hat on the back seat.

"Hey sweetie, love the car" I grinned.

"It's an indulgence but I love her too" Brenda's answering grin was bright and sunny as she leaned back, watching me. After a couple of blocks I looked over at her, to see her still gazing at me.

"What's up?"

"I like seeing you so happy Sharon, it's nice" I could feel my cheeks warm up, just a few simple words…

Unable to say anything meaningful right then I reached out and took her hand, bringing it up to my lips for a moment before returning it to her lap; unfortunately I had to have the hand free to use the stick.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Brenda sporting a cheesy grin before settling back into the seat. Finally, we ended up on the Santa Monica freeway and I could relax and enjoy the drive and the company. We chatted about cases, gossip, subjects serious and inconsequential, just enjoying being together.

As we swung north onto the Pacific Coast Highway, Brenda was taken by the view out over the ocean, together with the sun and wind in the hair, before she decided that a convertible was the only way to travel, which led to a long and silly discussion about which convertible would suit Brenda.

We debated the pros and cons of each convertible we spotted as we headed up the coast, with Brenda turning out to be partial to an open top Jeep, before we agreed that while it was fine when the weather was good, the canvas roof wouldn't cut it when it was cold and wet.

A dark blue Rolls convertible caught both our eyes, before being discarded as completely impractical; instead she decided that an old canary yellow Nissan 300Z passing us in the next lane was just what she wanted, the targa top mixing open top with practicality. Finally, after wistfully eyeing off the 300Z as it weaved away through the traffic, she turned to look at me.

"Mind you, it's not as good as a black BMW, cause it doesn't come with a sexy chauffeur" I smiled as she reached out and rested her hand on my thigh before settling back with a content smile.

Reaching Malibu, we had a long, slow lunch of seafood washed down with some good white, as we gazed out over the Pacific and just chatted about nothing of any real consequence. The day was turning out splendidly as we debated what we should do next.

"We could go shopping, get you some new clothes" was my suggestion. Brenda gave me an adorable pout, indicating her casual clothes.

"I thought you liked what I'm wearing?"

"I meant for work" Brenda laughed.

"Sweetie, half my wardrobe is full of work clothes you insisted I should buy" I laughed at her aggrieved tone.

"Thank god for that, just say no to floral's at work. Of course, now I'm your girlfriend I get power of veto over all your clothing choices" I got a slow, wide smile at the word girlfriend.

"So how long before I end up wearing power pants suits and Armani jackets?" I smiled.

"Well, you already have one Armani suit which you looked great in, but I rather like you in skirts, watching you sashay around the building, plus I get to see your legs"

"But you hide yours in pants" She punctuated her comment with a mock frown at my cotton pants. "I like your legs" I winked.

"Well this way honey, you're the only one who sees them" She smiled slowly.

"There is that. Y'know, I went shopping for clothes recently with Maura and Natalie, I swear Sharon those two were born to shop"

"That was the dinner suit and the Ball dress?"

"Yep, I've never spent that much on clothes in a single day; let's just say I was suffering sticker shock afterwards" I could understand that, given how much I spent for my dress and heels for the Ball; not that I was ever going to tell Brenda that.

"Well the results were so worth it. I loved you in that suit, so not your usual look. That was a wonderful night" I reached out and snagged her hand in mine, getting a cheeky smile in return. "I liked you with straight hair too" Brenda gave me a coquettish smile.

"So you think I should straighten it more often?" I pretended to contemplate it for a while, before shaking my head.

"No, I love the bounce and the curls" Brenda just smiled, before sliding her hand through her hair and giving it a playful flick over her shoulder.

"Like this sweetie?"

"Mmm, that's nice" I was distracted by the thoughts of sinking my hands into her mass of hair and just kissing her, but it was a bit too public for that just now. I was dragged back from my daydream by Brenda's words

"I don't understand how Nat can afford to shop like that. Maura I get, as you said money doesn't look like a problem, what with the house and car an all, but Natalie?"

"I think she's a careful shopper, when we met up that day, Maura bought three pairs of shoes and at least one dress, Nat only bought one pair of shoes and she wore them the night we went to Blush. The bright fuchsia ones" Brenda frowned for a moment.

"You did better than me sweetie, I couldn't have told you what they were wearing that night, I was too busy being distracted by someone else" She squeezed my hand tight as we shared a smile. "Speaking of being distracted, that dress you wore to the ball did it for me"

"That was the idea Brenda; I wanted you to like what I was wearing"

"Oh I did. I had to pick my jaw off the ground when I saw you. You looked lovely"

"So did you, it really suited you"

"Natalie said it would, she was the one who insisted on that dress, while Maura insisted on the heels" I leaned back, saluting her with my wine glass.

"Remind me to thank her for those, I love you in heels" Brenda just smirked.

"So I've learned sweetie, you are a kinky little minx aren't you?" I shrugged at her smirk.

"Guilty as charged. I like a sexy woman in heels, so you can hardly complain about me wanting you in them"

"So that's why you keep trying to get me to wear higher heels" My smile grew wider, '_busted_'.

"Sure, what's not to like" Brenda was silent for a moment, a far away look in her eyes.

"I hope we get a chance to wear them again, the Ball outfits I mean. It'd be a dreadful shame to only get to wear them once, you looked so nice sweetie, I wanna see you in it again" I smiled, remembering seeing and touching Brenda in that gown.

"Well, we'll have to find another reason to wear them, even if it's just us so we get to relive some memories" Brenda smiled softly.

"And make some new ones too"

"No arguments here" Brenda took a sip of her Merlot.

"Mind you, tight jeans, a tee and killer heels have kinda jumped up to the top of my favourite clothes list recently" I arced an eyebrow at her.

"I can't possibly imagine why" We smiled for a while before Brenda spoke again.

"Mind you, I really like you in dresses Sharon, compared to jeans"

"Oh, any particular reason?"

"Well, the jeans are nice and they make you look hot but it's also a bit harder to get access when I want to have my wicked way with you, 'specially at work" I dropped my head to peer at her over my glasses.

"And where exactly did you think that was going to happen pray tell young lady?" Brenda sniggered for a moment.

"I was kinda thinking in your office after everyone's left. You did say no one willingly comes near FID, it'd be the perfect place" I smirked.

"Oh really, and how exactly did you imagine this particular event going to happen honey?" Brenda looked around for a moment, before dropping her voice and leaning in.

"I kinda liked the idea that I'd push you back onto your desk, then I'd hike your skirt up around your hips and then I'd eat you out till you screamed" I smiled as I felt a slow tingle start deep down, trying not to let Brenda know just how enticing that sounded.

I could see us junking the rest of the afternoon and heading home to spend the rest of the day in bed if I wasn't careful. She may have been a novice, but Brenda was proving to be an adept student when it came to sex with a woman, taking the opportunity to practice regularly.

"And what makes you think I'd be a party to such inappropriate behaviour at work?"

"I don't know, perhaps that nasty little story you told me about how you imagined having me bent over my desk wearing nothing but a pair of stilettos while you fucked me with a strap-on" I licked my lips, which were suddenly dry. That particular fantasy had been a recurring one for weeks, one my mind wouldn't let go of.

Brenda took one look and fell back in her chair, giggling at me. Finally she subsided, smirking. "Don't try and deny it Sharon, the look on your face..."

"OK, fine, yes, I like that one, but I am not doing it at work"

"If not at work, then when sweetie?" I smirked, before taking a sip of wine. Brenda's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "I know that look Sharon Raydor, you're up to something"

Putting the glass down I smiled at her, time to divert her attention.

"C'mon, let's finish up and head back into town and go shopping. We're supposed to go to that LBD night at Blush with the girls in two weeks" Brenda frowned.

"LBD night?"

"Little Black Dress Night. The girls are going Saturday the week after next and we got an invite. Natalie said we have to have a repeat."

"But I already have a little black dress, why do I need another?"

"Because it'll be fun, because I get to see you looking nice in something new, because I get to see you getting changed…."

"It won't be the same without you in those jeans" I smiled at her little pout.

"On the other hand a dress does provide so much better access, in the club and elsewhere…" There was a long pause as we shared a slow, heated look. Finally Brenda balled up her paper napkin and tossed it on the plate.

"Ok, you win" Brenda peered across at me. "You'll be trying stuff on too won't you?"

"Sure" I got a smile in return.

"In that case it's fine, as long as I get a show too"

We paid and headed back out to the car for the drive back into town. I had the radio on low, but Brenda had to turn it up when a favourite song came on. We rolled back off the Pacific Coast Highway into LA with Brenda ramping up the southern accent as she sang along to Lana Del Rey's 'Video Games', while I laughed at her. She paused to fix me with a mock glare.

"What's so funny Sharon?"

"It's just that I thought of you singing that song the first time I heard it. I mean you with that accent, it was perfect"

"Well I have a different accent, I'll have you know not all southern accents are the same" She gave me an exaggerated eye roll and put on an exasperated tone. "Not that I expect a damn Yankee like you to know the difference"

"Well, we did win the Civil War" Brenda turned to look at me, the song forgotten as she gave me a mock glare.

"You mean the War of Northern Aggression"

"That's not what that PBS documentary series called it"

"He was a Yankee too"

"Well, the victor's do write history" I got another mock glare.

"Tell me about it" I smirked.

"You torqued about this honey?" Brenda smiled, all her play acting forgotten.

"Me, nah, I'd rather make love, not war"

"Brenda Leigh Johnson, peacenik hippy. Who'd have guessed" She started winding her hair around her finger as she looked at me, a smirk threatening to break through.

"I thought you liked the whole free love thing sweetie"

"Mmm, free love, I could get used to that" Her laughter was a joy to hear, I loved that I was the one she laughed with so freely.

We headed into town as traffic got heavier; the song having ended Brenda had turned the volume down and was frowning at the road in front of us.

"You ok honey?" She looked across at me, her frown disappearing.

"Yes, no, maybe" I grinned.

"Well that's definitive" I got a gentle slap on the thigh.

"Quiet you, I was just thinking about going out with the girls, which made me worry about going out with them to The Intersection" I frowned.

"What's the problem? Are you worried about what you'll be wearing?" She was silent for a bit, so I didn't push. Eventually she answered, her voice carrying a touch of hesitancy.

"Yeah, kinda, I mean I trust you, but I'm not sure to be out dressed like that. I mean, I don't look as good as they do. I'm sorta afraid I'll look silly an all" Relieved, I reached out and took her hand.

"Brenda, you'll look fantastic. You look good in work clothes, in something like club wear, well I might not even let you out of the house, I'd be worried someone would steal you away"

"You sure Sharon, I've never really dressed like that before. I'm just not sure"

I glanced across at Brenda to see her lower lip caught in in her teeth; obviously she was more uncertain about it than I'd expected. To be honest, she had a great body and I'd not been exaggerating about how good she'd look, I was looking forward to seeing her dressed to impress.

On the other hand I had to say I was a little pleased that Brenda was a little nervous, after all, I just knew that Brenda was going to attract all sorts of attention, what with that accent, that body and that smile.

I knew that was my insecurities talking, having just got together with Brenda; I didn't want to lose her to some younger woman.

I told myself that wasn't likely, I just had to make sure that Brenda was so totally happy with me that she wouldn't want anyone else. I'd been trying to do just that ever since we'd got together.

I'm not normally this… well clingy. We'd only spent a handful of nights apart since we got together last weekend, mostly because of work, normally I wanted slower, to ease into it, but in this case I wanted Brenda, I wanted her to want me and I was a little afraid that someone else would steal her away from me if I wasn't careful.

I was aware that I wasn't getting any younger while Brenda was eight years younger than me, it shouldn't have mattered, but it did, at least to me. The last week had been wonderful, the weeks before as we'd moved closer had been great, I hadn't been this happy in years and I didn't want it to end.

I felt Brenda's hand come to rest on my hand where it sat on the stick, her voice tinged with concern.

"Hey sweetie, are you alright" With an effort I forced my mind away from thoughts of losing Brenda; telling myself that was just my fears talking, I had the reality sitting right here beside me, live and lovely. I smiled at her concerned expression.

"I'm fine honey, I was just thinking" I could see Brenda was still a little concerned, I wondered how long I'd been lost in my thoughts. Damn my insecurities!

"What about? Anything interesting" I decided that I needed a distraction.

"I may, just possibly, have received a parcel this morning..." Whatever I was going to say was drowned out by Brenda's excited squeal.

"It's here, already?" I couldn't help but smile at her excitement; she looked like a kid in a candy store, or Brenda in a chocolate shop.

"Yep, it all arrived today" Brenda sat back for a moment, before turning a scheming eye on me.

"Sharon, sweetie…" I raised an eyebrow at her tone, all embarrassed and anxious and eager all at once, but I decided I wasn't going to make it totally easy for her.

"Yes…?"

"You think…maybe we can go shopping tomorrow?" I looked across, to see her staring at me, longing visible in her eyes. I felt a warmth start down low inside me at that look. She leaned in, placing a hand on my thigh as she spoke into my ear. "I'll make it worth your while"

"You will, will you?" She just nodded, as her hand drifted higher up my thigh. I smiled to myself. "Well, I suppose, but we are almost at Rodeo Drive" Brenda however wasn't going to take no for an answer. Her voice dropped a few octaves, got slow and breathy.

"Me, nude, stilettoes, bent over" I swallowed, oh she was playing dirty. "You, a strap-on, us… Please?"

Maybe my fears were irrational; Brenda certainly seemed to be into me as much as I was into her. Maybe Natalie was right, we were the last person either of us would seek out. God I hoped so.

Either way, I had Brenda Leigh Johnson almost begging me to take her home and fuck her; I'd have to be six kinds of idiot to say no to that and so I didn't.

It turned out the reality was even better than my fantasy.


	88. Chapter 88

**Taking the sniper down**

Brenda's viewpoint

The Murder Room was bedlam; nothing like the usual Monday morning, it seemed every phone was ringing, everyone trying to talk over everyone else, as we moved around each other getting ready.

We'd had another convenience store broken into overnight, not too far from the others, with a camera on another building showing someone with a limp in the vicinity. I'd been dragged, complaining bitterly, out of Sharon's bed at four in the morning to join the team on site as we'd coordinated a search of the surrounding area which had turned up nothing.

We'd just got back to headquarters around nine when a uniform on a canvas of the area reported that a homeless guy had reported someone with a limp moving into an abandoned old bakery less than eight blocks from the store.

The officer's report confirmed that the person the homeless guy had seen was wearing the same clothes and carrying the same backpack as the person in the video seen leaving the convenience store, which was enough for us to roll out with Tactical Response and full support.

Given Tactical Response had four members still recovering after the bombing at the Ritz Carlton, Major Crimes would be providing back up. I didn't like it; it wasn't what we were trained for but really we had no other choice.

The team was in the armoury, drawing weapons, tactical vests and radios, most of them had automatic rifles though I was going to stick with a pistol, hopefully it wouldn't come to a shooting match.

Finally we were ready to go, as I looked around the room, gathering everyone in. I was about to speak when Anastasia bustled into the room, spilling apologies.

"Sorry I'm late" I took a moment to look her over, barely noticing Natalie trailing behind.

She was dressed in a tactical vest over an urban camouflage pattern uniform and boots, with tactical webbing liberally festooned with gear and her hair tied back in a severe braid. She looked like the star of an action movie, not helped by the M16 hanging from her shoulder complete with underslung grenade launcher and sniper scope and the helmet and radio gear slung from her webbing. Though it was patently obvious I had to ask the question.

"What are you doing here Agent Romanov?" She stopped and looked at me, with a 'what the hell' look on her face.

"I got the word you were moving in on Weaver and given you're short handed you need the help. Besides, I've been involved on this case since day one, so might as well help wrap it up" I thought about it for a moment before she spoke again. "Besides, I'm the urban combat specialist here" I considered her words for a moment and came to a decision.

"Are your superiors aware you are planning on rolling out on this operation?" She stood a fraction straighter and nodded once.

"They are Ma'am" I nodded and smiled, '_you can take the girl out of the army…_'. Besides, she was right, we were short of people and she'd done this before.

"Good to have you with us" I turned and took in the rest of the team.

"Hopefully Tactical Response will handle this, we're just along to hold the perimeter of the building while they go in and take Weaver down, if she's in there" I noted the dubious looks being shared round; I couldn't blame them really.

"No heroics mind, that's Tactical Response's job" I looked around at everyone. "No matter what happens, your safety is the primary concern" There were nods all round. "I don't care if she gets away, as long as everyone here is ok, you understand me" There was a moment of silence before Julio spoke.

"Loud and clear Chief" I nodded.

"Take care of anything you need to do, we meet in the basement in ten minutes" They nodded and turned for the door.

As I stood there, watching them flow out, I saw Natalie and Ana having a quiet but intense discussion in the corner. I could only imagine what they were saying, before Ana swept Natalie into a tight hug. I turned and walked out, giving them some privacy.

I stood near the elevators for a moment, my hand hovering on the down button, before I realised I had something I had to do. I pushed the up button and rode up to Sharon's floor.

I felt terribly out of place, wearing a tactical vest over a blouse, skirt and heels, but I had to see Sharon before I left. I could feel the eyes following me as I walked through FID to Sharon's office, where she was sitting at her desk, working through paperwork. At my knock she looked up, her eyes taking me in, as her face tightened.

"Sorry to bother you Commander, do you have a moment?" Sharon stood, realising I'd spoke for the benefit of her team.

"Of course Chief, come in please" I stepped in and moved to her desk, stopping close enough to her so I could speak quietly.

"Hey sweetie" She smiled, a small and wan thing really.

"Hey you" I wasn't really sure where I should be looking; it was hard looking at her.

"We got a lead on Weaver, Tactical Response is handling it but we're backing them up as they're down people after the bombing" I glanced up to see Sharon had paled a bit at my words.

"Oh, ok" I had a hundred things I wanted to say, but I wanted to hang on to normality.

"Can I come over tonight?" Sharon seemed to be at a loss for words too, finally falling back into normality as well.

"Course you can, just don't mess up that skirt, it's brand new and I don't want you wrecking it, ok?" I smiled, but it was an effort.

"Ok…well" I wanted to pull her into a hug and never let her go, but I could tell everyone in FID was watching us. I settled for a quick touch of the fingers as her hand and mine brushed. "I better get going, everyone's waiting"

"I guess I'll see you later then" I tried to smile, then turned away, but not before I realised I wanted to say something else, but now wasn't the time or the place.

I walked out into the main office and watched the FID squad suddenly find lots of work to bury themselves in as I passed them on the way through. I turned at the door to see Sharon still standing there, watching me leave, her face a frozen mask.

With a nod I turned and left, I had a job to do.

The area around the old bakery was a combination of old residential buildings and commercial premises. A discreet cordon had been set up out of line of sight of the building, with uniformed police moving everyone out of the nearby buildings via the rear entrances and spiriting them away. It was almost noon before we were ready to move. I stood in the midday heat with Anastasia and Tactical Response's Captain Peter Collins as we went over a set of old blueprints for the building spread out on the hood of a car.

"Well, there's good news and bad news" Peter was staring at the plans. "The walls are damned thick, old style double brick and steel core construction; they may well stop a 50 cal, if we're real lucky. The bad news is that there's a rabbit warren of offices and narrow corridors on this side of the building" Anastasia nodded.

"They have a view over the front; I'll bet that's where we'll find her. The rear doesn't have the same outside coverage, plus there's only one door in the back. I make it at least three doors in here at the front, plus the loading bay" I looked down at the blueprints then back up at Peter. He was the one going in, it was his call.

"How do you want to do this?" He nodded at me, obviously understanding I was ceding command to him.

"We'll go in the same door the report said she used, less likely to be booby trapped. I wouldn't be surprised if the others have a few surprises set up, she was attached to a bomb disposal unit so she may have learned a few tricks" He tapped the blueprints. "Put several uniforms on the rear door in case she tries to escape that way. I'll lead my team in and start a sweep through. Your job's to hold the front in case she tries to bolt out that way" I nodded as Ana spoke.

"Gonna be a bitch in there, few windows and no power means most of it will be as dark as the inside of a black cat on a moonless night" He nodded.

"We'll be using low light and IR, but it'll be slow going" He looked up at me. "Brenda, we'll try and be as quiet as possible, but if Weaver is in there and she works out what's happening, there's a good chance she may start looking for targets out here" I understood what he was saying.

"Well, we'll try and keep our heads down" He nodded, looking down at the blueprints for a moment before lifting his eyes to look me in the face.

"A 50 cal will go through a normal brick wall and the only part of a car that will stop a Barrett is the engine block, remember that" I smiled tightly.

"Good advice" Leaving him to brief his team, I walked back to talk to the boys, with Ana trailing me. I looked across at her. She had more experience at this than any of us.

"What do you think will happen Ana?"

"Hard to tell Chief, the Barrett's a damned heavy piece of kit. Not the sort of thing you'd use in a fire fight unless you had too, she probably has another weapon, maybe a rifle, plus almost certainly a pistol or two. If we keep our heads down then we should be all right"

"I hope you're right" She nodded.

"You and me both"

I briefed the rest of the squad on what Tactical Response was going to do. As agreed, they would sneak up on the building in a delivery van which would park a few houses down; they would then sneak up and into the building from there.

"What about us Chief?" It was Andy. "How do we get there?" I'd been thinking about that, remembering Peter's comment's about what might stop a 50 calibre bullet.

"Normally I'd say we just roll up and take cover behind our cars, but this time…" Ana nodded slowly.

"In Iraq we'd take cover behind armoured vehicles, too bad the LAPD doesn't run to those" There were quietly concerned looks shared all round, before Michael smiled.

"Maybe we can do something almost as good" He pointed out a dump truck parked up the street with a full load of scrap metal in the back. I nodded, that would do. Gabriel looked over at Ana.

"What would the army do in Iraq in a situation like this?" She shrugged.

"If they didn't surrender and had serious firepower, send in a tank to blow the building down around them" Jane nodded once, hefting her rifle.

"Good plan"

30 minutes later we were ready to move in, the Tactical Response guys were in position at the door and we were just out of sight, ready to move when needed. It was funny seeing how they had paired off. Flynn and Provenza were sitting in the front seat of the cruiser, talking quietly while David and Julio had found some cards from somewhere and were playing some game on the bonnet of their car.

Michael and Buzz were talking camera gear while Jane and Ana were leaning back against a building wall, legs stretched out in front of them, talking quietly.

With nothing to do I was talking to Peter Collins on the radio.

'_Good luck Peter_' His voice was clipped and short, the voice of a man about to head into real danger.

'_Thanks Brenda, hopefully it'll go down easy. We're heading in now_' I relayed everything to the team and we waited.

'_Ok, we're in, moving forward_' There was nothing for the next few minutes before he came up again. '_Looks like we're in the right place, the whole place is wired with booby-traps_'. I felt the tension twist inside my stomach.

'_Be careful_' I realised how stupid that must have sounded as soon as I said it but he was cool.

'_You got it_' I relayed the news to the squad, seeing everyone get even tenser as we realised this was the right place.

"Ok everyone; we do our job, no heroics. She's killed at least eight people; I don't want her adding any more today, right" There were nods all round.

We waited for another few minutes, before a dull boom, soft with distance, echoed through the streets. Everyone's head swung.

"Oh crap" It was Flynn.

'_Shit, Brenda, we just triggered a booby trap, one of my people is hurt, not too bad but Weaver definitely knows we're here_' I nodded, even though Peter couldn't see it.

'_We're moving_' I turned to Ana, Jane and the boys. "Let's go people"

Buzz looked around at us.

"Be careful, all of you" We nodded, before moving to the vehicles as he ran into a building to set up his cameras to cover the front of the old bakery.

David jumped into the commandeered dump truck with Michael in the passenger seat, as the rest of us piled into two cars and followed it into the street in front of the bakery.

Pulling to a halt out the front of the building, the boys got out of the truck and took cover behind it, as the rest of us scurried out of the cars and took cover behind them.

'_We're in position, what's happening in there?_' Peter's stressed voice came back after a delay.

'_Moving forward, she's in here, but we have to be careful, the place is filled with traps. Commercial explosives, not military thank god but still…_'

'Understood' I turned to relay the message to the team when I heard the sound of bullets impacting the bonnet of the car as everyone hit the ground.

'_Peter, we're taking fire here, automatic weapons fire_' I looked around. "Is everyone ok? Is anyone hit?" There was a chorus of 'no's' and 'I'm ok's' as I looked around.

Risking a short glance I could see none of the windows were shattered, so where was she shooting from? Another round of fire hit against the bonnet of the truck, driving everyone back under cover. I could imagine the truck owner was counting the claim against the LAPD over this.

Stupid the things your mind thinks of under stress, it wasn't even an old truck, Will Pope would be so pissed, not that I particularly cared.

I chanced another look but couldn't see anything, but Ana must have spotted something; I saw her rise from behind the other car, peering out from under her helmet, then let off a burst of fire through a second floor window before ducking back. She looked over at me.

"Only window with a piece missing, she was shooting from in there" I nodded. Taking another look I focussed on the shattered window, when a burst of fire from inside shattered all the windows across a 20 foot section of the second floor. So much for that idea.

I chanced another look over the bonnet of the car, as a burst of fire swept over the car that Flynn, Provenza and Ana were taking cover behind. They dropped even lower to avoid the fire as Jane popped up next to me and took several shots into one of the windows before dropping back.

"Get her?" Jane shook her head.

"Saw a muzzle flash, but all I did was make her duck" I nodded, then cringed as the car vibrated from a series of hits, I could feel the shocks through where I was huddled against it. I looked at Jane.

"I think we got her attention" She just looked at me and shook her head.

"You reckon?"

A burst of fire from Gabriel and Tao caused Weaver to stop firing long enough to let me take another look. I couldn't see anything from inside the darkened windows. Dropping back I looked around to see Julio and Jane with me, Gabriel and Tao behind the truck and Flynn, Provenza and Ana behind another car beyond the truck.

As I watched Ana brought her weapon up and with a dull thump a grenade sailed into a window, followed by a loud bang. Seconds' later white-green smoke started billowing from the windows. Ana looked back at me and grinned before calling out.

"Tear gas, hopefully enough to slow her down" I nodded and thumbed the radio in my hand.

'_Peter, we've fired tear gas into the second floor, it may drive her your way_' His voice came back, clipped and tense.

'_Roger that_'

For at least 30 seconds the street was quiet, before another burst of fire rattled out, hitting the other car, sending them ducking as a spray of broken glass hit the road.

"Maybe Weaver's got a gas mask" It was Sanchez. Jane shrugged.

"Why not, she's got almost everything else in there but the kitchen sink" I grinned, typical Jane. Over the sound of firing I could also hear another dull boom from inside the building.

'_How you doing in there Peter?_' His voice came back, a bit strained.

'_Two people down from booby trapped doors, not major but it's slowing us down_'

Another burst of fire rang out, with bullets ricocheting off the scrap metal in the back of the truck, as Michael and David took cover.

'_Understood, we'll try and keep her occupied_'.

'_Thanks_'

There was silence for a few seconds, then a few more. As the silence stretched out David looked over at me.

"Figure she's out of ammo?" I shrugged as Sanchez snorted.

"We couldn't be that lucky"

I turned to look around as a loud crack sounded; the car actually shook from the impact.

"Holy fuck!" The shout came from Jane. I turned to see a large hole in the side of the car only inches from where she was backed up against it. The bullet had ended up digging a divot in the road before coming to rest embedded deep in the road. I looked at Jane, who was damned scared, not that I blamed her, not with 50 clibre bullets flying.

"On three run for the truck" Jane just looked at me, eyes wide.

"No shit Chief!"

One, two, three" I rolled to my knees, resting my arms on the cruiser's hood and let off half a clip from my pistol into the windows as Jane bolted for the truck. Another loud crack signalled I hadn't distracted Weaver, but the shot hit behind a racing Jane and she made it into cover.

"Shot came from the fourth window from the left!" It was Flynn, who had popped up and was firing into the window. Ana leapt up and fired another tear gas round into that window, followed by a volley of shots as Provenza scampered across to the bulk of the truck. For his age he could move when he had too.

Another crack sounded, driving Ana and Flynn flat onto the ground. Ana was burrowing in behind the engine bay, but Andy was exposed, lying down behind the car's rear. Another shot followed as he flinched, then another as Weaver peppered the car, it was only a matter of time before she hit him.

"Flynn, get ready to run for the truck!" I looked to the group taking cover behind the truck. "Cover him" I swapped clips as Julio looked at me.

"Chief, what are you doing?" I looked up at him. "Someone's got to provide a distraction, otherwise she'll get lucky and hit him" He nodded as another shot smashed through the other car, missing Andy by inches.

I jumped to my feet and started placing shots through each window firing as fast as I could. The others started firing as well, hopefully driving Weaver back.

"Now Andy, now!" He needed no encouragement, scrambling across the ten feet or so between the car and the truck, as Provenza dragged him into cover.

Seeing him in cover, I fell back to my knees just in time, as a shot slammed straight through the cruiser's roof and door, missing me by less than a foot. I flinched and moved further away from the entry point.

Another shot hit, closer this time. Before I could move Sanchez flung himself bodily at me, slamming me flat on the road with his body on top of mine, partly knocking the wind out of me. Before I could recover he was bodily dragging me towards the front of the car, putting the engine between Weaver and both of us.

"C'mon Chief, move it" I scrambled after him till we huddled next to the wheel, flat on our stomachs.

I heard another shot smack into the car; the engine must have stopped it, as nothing came though, though the car shook. Then another, this one higher up, missing the engine and ripping through the fender and into the road next to us, as we burrowed closer to the car.

For a moment all I could think of was Sharon, how much more I should have said, but didn't. What we should have done, what we wanted to do together, things I needed to say to her…

Another shot hit, digging into the road even closer. Then I heard a fusillade of shots as everyone else laid down covering fire, driving Weaver deeper into cover and buying us some time.

I remembered the radio I had still attached to the vest.

'_Peter, how are you doing in there?_' There was silence for a few seconds '_Tell me you're close_'

'_Approaching the door, we can hear the Barrett on the other side_'

'_As I'm on the receiving end,_ s_ometime today would be greatly appreciated Peter_' I could hear the ghost of a smile in his voice, dreadful man.

'_Gotcha, hang on Brenda_'

Another loud crack sounded, god I hated that sound. It hit the other car, up near where Ana had ducked behind it, then another.

I looked up to see if I could pinpoint the shot, just in time to see a long barrel swing my way, with a face behind it hidden by a gas mask. I started to duck, hoping I was quick enough, when I was smashed to the ground. I barely had time to think 'Goodbye Sharon' when the ground came up and hit me.

For a few seconds I lay there stunned, as debris rained down on us, broken glass and bits of brick and concrete before I opened my eyes to see Julio looking down at me.

"Wake up Chief, wake up" I looked around, before realising that the pall of smoke drifting out of the second floor of the building was from an explosion, the room had exploded.

Sanchez helped me to my feet, as I picked up my pistol and holstered it, before I turned back to look up at the building which was partially wrecked. I suddenly remembered that we had people in there. I grabbed the radio.

'_Peter, you ok in there?_' There was silence for a second before his voice came back, sounding exhausted.

'_Yeah, we're ok; we're on our way out. We're going to need busses for two of my guys_'

I nodded, as I heard Michael Tao calling for ambulances to be sent forward, plus the LAFD. I called out to the squad.

"Is everyone ok?"

"Flynn and Gabriel have a few scratches, nothing major"

"Good job everyone" Hearing a low whistle, I turned to see Michael staring at the cruiser Julio and I had been sheltering behind.

"Holy crap" I walked over to see the mess Weaver had made of it, over half a dozen 50 calibre shots plus all the other hits had turned it into a wreck, the only place it was going was to the junk yard.

I turned to look over the other cruiser, to see it was almost as badly wrecked. Shaking my head, I wandered back to see Flynn and Provenza pointing out the shots into the truck. It wasn't as bad but it was going to be a while getting repaired.

As I looked around, I saw uniformed police arriving; the place was filling up with black and white's, uniforms taking charge.

Jane and Anastasia were standing only a few feet away. Both slumped against the wrecked Crown Vic. Both looked exhausted, something I could completely understand, I could feel my limbs threatening to give out at any time.

An ambulance arrived, then another, then a third. I turned to watch as the Tactical Response team emerged, supporting two of their team mates who were carrying injuries. Additional cops moved to help them carry them to waiting ambulances. After a quick check up they were loaded into one ambulance each and transported off. I caught Peter Collins' eye and we shared a nod and a moment, before he wandered over.

He smiled up at me, before pulling off his glove and holding his hand out; I smiled back as we shook hands.

"Thanks for the assist Brenda" I nodded.

"Glad to help. How are your people?"

"They should be fine, with some medical attention. What about yours?"

"A few close shaves, but no one hit" He nodded.

"Good"

"What happened in there?"

"We blew the door open, which set off the explosives stored in the room, thankfully the internal walls soaked up most of the blast and shrapnel, the armour stopped the rest"

"So Weaver decided not to be taken"

"You got that right; part of the explosion was an explosive vest she was wearing, filled with shrapnel, so she obviously had no intention of ever being captured" I shook my head, then looked back at him.

"Can't say I'm sorry; is it wrong to say I didn't want some lawyer getting her off death row on an insanity plea?" He shook his head.

'No, not wrong at all" I took in his appearance, he was covered in dirt and dust, his armour was pock-marked with shrapnel impacts, he looked like shit.

"You ok?" He nodded.

"Yeah, I'm good, armour did it's job"

I watched as the first fire units arrived and started setting up. Peter called the Fire Chief over and explained that the building was wired with explosives so no one could go in until the bomb squad had been through and rendered everything safe. The Fire Chief nodded and turned to warn his men as I turned away, feeling exhaustion washing over me. Fighting it off I straightened up, pushing it away, the job wasn't over yet.

I turned and called everyone together, as David and Andy had finished getting their cuts and abrasions looked at by the EMTs.

"Good job everyone, really good job. Tactical Response will get the credit, but they only got Weaver because we held her here, so you all had a part of this"

"Does this mean we get the rest of the day off Chief" It was Provenza, naturally.

"Why yes Lieutenant, it does, just as soon as we get our weapons and gear back to the armoury, give statements and finalise all the paperwork" Flynn eyed the wrecked Crown Vics and sighed, resignation obvious in the tone.

"So not today"

"Well Lieutenant, that depends on how fast you can complete the paperwork"

"Oh shit" I looked up at Jane's fearful tone.

"What?" Ana groaned.

"We're in trouble" I followed their gaze to see three familiar figures walking towards us, Maura, Natalie and Sharon. My heart sank as I looked down and took in my scuffed shoes, dirty blouse and filthy, torn skirt.

"Oh no" Realising we didn't have much time I turned to take in the team.

"Gentlemen; we three…" I indicated Jane and Ana and then myself "…would take it as a deep personal favour if you didn't discuss what's happened here today in too much detail with Doctor Isles, Ms Dearing or Commander Raydor. There's no need to unduly concern them, as I'm sure you'd all agree"

I could see puzzled looks all round, before Jane leaned in.

"Guys, if they find out how close it came, our lives will be for shit, understand?" I nodded.

"And if they give us grief, well, misery loves company, got it?" At my glower there were nods and agreement all round.

"Thanks guys" It was Ana. "We'll make it up to you, promise" Jane shot her a glance.

"We will?" Ana gave her a filthy look.

"Yes. We. Will" Jane shot a glance up the street at our approaching lovers, her face turning apprehensive.

"Ok, fine. Yes we'll make it up to you" I looked at the others, some of whom were amused and others perplexed. Gabriel caught my eye, a curious look on his face.

"Chief, you want us to keep Commander Raydor in the dark about this?" I nodded.

"Yes Sergeant, that's exactly what I want. Do you have a problem with that?" Noticing the glares from Ana and Jane and my hard look he swallowed.

"No Chief, not a one" I smiled.

"Well then, that's settled" Hearing the click of approaching heels behind us I turned around to face the music.

All three stopped a few feet from us, obviously taking us in. I could see the worry and sorrow and concern in Sharon's eyes as she took in my wrecked clothes, the messed up hair and no doubt the dirt on my face.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Natalie drag Ana into a hug as she started gently sobbing while Maura had stepped up, flung her arms around Jane and buried her head in Jane's neck, maybe she was crying, I couldn't tell.

Sharon just looked me up and down, her arms crossed, as she shook her head, those piercing green eyes taking in the wrecked cars, the smoke from the ruined buildings, missing nothing.

"I thought I told you not to mess up that skirt" I felt myself blushing in embarrassment. I looked down at the wrecked skirt for a moment, then looked back up.

"I'm sorry" Sharon just stepped closer.

"Oh you will be young lady, later" Before I could react she'd grabbed me by the vest and yanked me close. "But right now, I'm just happy you're ok" Before I could react her mouth was on mine and she was kissing me right there, in front of everyone, one hand fisting in my hair and holding me to her.

For a moment I was stunned, Sharon was kissing me, in front of everyone. Everyone! We were being outed in front of the squad, Peter Collins and the Tactical Response guys, the EMTs, the fire guys, they were all watching.

But then I realised I was alive, I was unhurt and I had her, I didn't care about anything else, I had Sharon and everything else was unimportant.

I just wanted to be here, happy in her arms. The rest of the world, for just a moment, could go to hell.


	89. Chapter 89

**Waiting on the siege**

Sharon's viewpoint

I was sitting in my office, pretending to work but really staring at nothing very much. Brenda was leading her squad into a lethal situation and there was nothing I could do about it. I was scared for her and more than a little concerned that I was behaving like a girl with a crush, not a senior officer in the LAPD.

I was so absorbed in my thoughts that it wasn't until I heard them knock that I was aware I had visitors. I looked up to see Maura and Natalie standing in my door, both looking about as well as I felt. I noticed they were both holding handbags.

"Oh hello, what brings you here" Natalie didn't mince around.

"The same thing you're thinking about" I blinked.

"What do you mean?"

"What's about to happen downtown" Like they had to remind me.

"Well yes; so?"

"Maura suggested that we go get a coffee, out of the building. Way out of the building" I frowned, I wasn't following them.

"What do you mean?" Maura turned an exasperated look on me.

"I mean about a mile or so from where they are" Ah. Now I understood what they were suggesting. Natalie jumped in.

"Look Sharon, when this is over, there's likely to be a dead sniper, so Maura will need to be there, shot by a police officer, so you will need to be there as it'll be a FID case, and someone's going to have to talk to the media so…"

"So you think it's appropriate that we be near there, just not on the scene?"

"Absolutely"

"Totally"

"Certainly, let's go" I grabbed my bag.

The trip passed mostly in silence, until we were sitting in a coffee shop a few suburbs from the disused bakery. We ordered coffees and once they arrived we sat there, just staring into them. Finally Maura broke the silence.

"I watched Jane pull on a vest before she left, even though we both knew it would not stop a 50 calibre projectile" Natalie signed.

"I thought the same thing when I saw Ana wearing hers" I looked at them, both lost in thought.

"What did you say to them?" They both looked at me, obviously struggling. Maura looked back to her coffee.

"Be careful" Natalie looked out the window, then back at me.

"Be safe. What did you say to Brenda?"

"I didn't say anything, but I kept thinking come back to me" Natalie nodded. There was silence for a long moment as we each lost ourselves in our thoughts then she spoke again, softly.

"Aren't we a right mess?" I looked up at her.

"Yes" She looked levelly back at me.

"This is what we get for falling for the brave ones" Maura looked up from the coffee.

"I've seen Jane almost die once. I sat by the bed for days after she put a bullet through her chest to save her brother and me. I do not think I can do that again" Natalie looked out the window at the passing traffic, her voice reflective.

"Ana took a knife in the chest from a cornered sex slaver before she put two shots through his head. She spent two weeks in intensive care while it was touch and go. I don't want to do that again ever" I snorted.

"Neither of you are actually helping here. You're supposed to be positive role models for anyone entering a relationship with a police officer" Natalie sighed.

"I think you've got the wrong women" I looked at both of them, understanding what was worrying them. Weaver hated beautiful women and all three of the women we cared for were exceptionally beautiful, each in their own way. I knew if Weaver saw them she would take a shot at them. I kept thinking of Brenda dead, just like Nicki Black had been, sprawled in the road without a face.

Finally Natalie just sighed deeply before speaking.

"My god, this is like a wake and for all we know the whole thing will go down without a shot being fired" I shrugged.

"Do you believe that?" Natalie tried to smile, not her best effort, but it was a start.

"Hope springs eternal" Maura smiled slightly, raising an eyebrow.

"I believe the appropriate response is hope is illogical" Natalie's jaw practically bounced off the table, with mine right behind it.

"You watch Star Trek?" Maura blushed.

"Jane likes action movies and science fiction, so we went and saw Star Trek at the theatre" Natalie smiled, a much more normal approximation of her usual.

"Well that checks both boxes, although I rather preferred the earlier series" Half paying attention, I nodded.

"I didn't mind them, but I actually preferred the later series, Voyager in particular" Natalie snorted.

"Figures, a strong female authority figure and a hot blonde" I smiled, thinking this was an insane discussion to be having while Brenda was in danger, but I understood that we had to do something to try and take our minds off what was happening not too far away.

"That wasn't the reason. Well, not the only reason. I liked the fact that they had a captain who was female and strong and who didn't have to be a bitch to be the boss" Natalie couldn't let it go.

"And a hot blonde in a skin tight catsuit had nothing to do with it? As if" I could tell that Maura wasn't following us so I tried to explain.

"Maura, in Star Trek: Voyager, a Starfleet ship gets lost in a different part of the galaxy and has to make a decade-long trip back home. The captain was a woman, a strong character while still being a woman" Natalie jumped in.

"It had some strong storylines, but ratings weren't great, so they introduced a Borg character, who had been a human girl before being assimilated, turned into one of the Borg" Maura nodded, indicating she at least knew some of the background.

"Anyway at the end of the episode where she was introduced they stripped all the Borg bits from her and presented her as a flawless stacked blonde in a skin tight silver costume, basically a blatant play for the male demographic" She smirked. "Of course it worked" I smiled.

"Who needs characterisation, plot, character development, drama? Seven of Nine's appearance proved was that all you need to hook the Star Trek demographic is a stunning blonde in tight clothing" Natalie sniggered.

"Not just the Star Trek fans either. Maura and I know two people who don't object to that; and I'm pretty sure you wouldn't object to Brenda in something similar" I smiled softly, filing that image away for another time. Maura smiled gently back at us, toying with her cup.

"There is something to be said for a brunette in something similar" Natalie grinned.

"Well Ana has the hots for the Black Widow, I mean Scarlett Johansson as a redhead in a skin-tight costume, what's not to like" Maura smiled.

"There is much to be said for an attractive, strong role model. Jane rather appreciates Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft, even though she is not too complimentary about the realism of some of the gunplay" I couldn't help it, there was no way I was going to let that statement go unchallenged.

"Hang on; you're talking about Lara Croft and realism in the same sentence?" Maura at least had the grace to look a bit shame-faced.

"Well, it is Jane's choice, not mine" Natalie smiled indulgently.

"So who's your choice as an action hero role model then Maura?" She paused for a moment, obviously considering her choice before continuing quietly.

"I rather like Kate Beckinsale as Selene in the Underworld movies. I like the idea of a women walking away from her previous life to pursue love" I smiled.

"Not to mention she looks incredibly hot in a latex catsuit and corset" Maura tilted her head to regard me, with a small smile playing on her lips.

"Well yes, there is that. What about you Sharon, you must have one as well" I took a sip of my coffee before answering.

"I suppose I do, in the traditional sense it was Wonder Woman when I was growing up, I mean she one of the first female superheroes and there weren't a lot of female action heroes back then. After that, well the next big one was probably Sigourney Weaver in Alien and the sequel. I didn't like the others but in those two movies; well she was the hero, which was a rarity I suppose"

"These days, well I'm a fan of Mila Jovovich. Her Resident Evil movies are a really guilty pleasure. I've never told a soul that I've watched them, and I'll deny it if you repeat it to anyone" They both nodded.

"Anyway there was this other movie, Ultraviolet, where she plays a kind of vampire, not the Twilight kind, more a victim of a disease, anyway, she's fighting to save a child, which I can completely understand. Besides, she wears the most amazing outfits, mostly crop tops and tight pants, so it's really an extended homage to her pretty sensational abs" Natalie smiled.

"Looks like I know what the next movie night's going to be at our house" Maura turned to look at her.

"Well, Sharon and I have explained our choices, who might yours be?" Nat chewed her lip for a moment.

"Well, Trinity from the Matrix movies. She was willing to do anything, to follow her destiny to find love. I can appreciate that" I rolled my eyes at her.

"Another hot woman in a catsuit, I'm seeing a trend here"

"C'mon Sharon, there's nothing wrong with that. I've seen Ana in one and I'll never forget that particular night" I just looked at her, raising an eyebrow, and waited. She looked over at Maura to see her staring at her as well.

"Oh ok" She smiled softly in remembrance.

"Well it was a television or movie fancy dress party and we decided to go as Catwoman and Marilyn Monroe. I did the whole Gentlemen Prefer Blonde's red dress, 50s hair and dripping in fake jewellery, Ana got a latex cat suit and a domino mask from a fetish shop, cat's ears headband and teamed it with a whip and a pair of the most ridiculously high stiletto-heeled leather boots you could find. It was the first time a lot of people had ever seen her outside work suits and their reaction was…um, positive"

"Positive, in what way?" I'm glad Maura asked that because I was just about to.

"I ended having to get very territorial, a couple of people wouldn't take no for an answer. One guy didn't believe that we were an item and Ana almost slugged him. Fortunately I stepped in to demonstrate that we were very much an item thank you very much. He got the hint. The other was a woman dressed as Alice in Wonderland; I ended up 'accidently' spilling my glass of wine all over her" I laughed.

"That's hardly diplomatic of you Natalie"

"Yeah, well she was hitting on my girlfriend and when Ana pointed out that I was her girlfriend standing right there she suggested that Ana dump me as she would be a lot more fun than some dumb blonde" Maura grinned.

"Ooh, nasty"

"I apologised to Ana, but she told me she liked seeing me being territorial when she was being hit on. It was a strange feeling; normally it's the other way round. It made me understand what she sometimes has to go through and ever since I've gone out of my way to make sure that I turn down offers pretty hard, to make sure people get the message the first time" She shrugged.

"Can't say as I blame people though, that costume really emphasised her body, it was probably a size too small and there wasn't much left to the imagination" Maura smiled gently.

"I know what you mean, Jane and I were at an annual Boston PD fancy dress party last year, I went as a police officer in an extremely tightly-tailored version of the Boston police uniform, to be honest I was going through a rough patch at the time and wanted to attract some attention, to be admired. Jane went in naughty nurse's costume, her then boyfriend was going to be dressed as a sailor and they were going to be the iconic couple at the end of the Second World War" Natalie looked intrigued.

"So what happened? Was that when you first got together?"

"Unfortunately no, Jane's date turned up very drunk and she dumped him on the spot, which I have to say made me feel so much better. We were both getting a lot of attention and just starting to get flirty with each other when we were called out to a crime scene, which led to a really nasty case chasing a serial killer which side-tracked us. We didn't get together until weeks later in New York" I shook my head.

"What is it with serial killers these days, it seems like no one kills just one person anymore; they have to turn it into some weird mass production ritual" Maura tilted her head to the side and looked at me.

"Studies show that the serial killer has always been with us, it is just that between a combination of mass media coverage highlighting their activities and improved police capabilities allowing for the discovery and closure of otherwise unknown serial killing crimes, the incidence just seems to have risen" I nodded.

"Intellectually I know that, it just seems that there's a lot more of them today than there used to be" They both nodded. I noticed both of them repeatedly dropping their eyes to their cell phones on the table, waiting on the call. I'd left mine in my bag to stop myself doing exactly that. Maura looked, up, smiling.

"Oh, while I remember, I had an interesting phone call last night; friends of ours from New York are coming to visit. You may remember that we got help from Olivia Benson, a detective with the NYPD, on the car bombing case?" Natalie and I both nodded. "Well her partner, Alex, is an Assistant District Attorney. Alex has to attend a conference here the week after next so she will be staying with us" Maura chuckled.

"Jane made it quite clear to Alex that if she did not bring Olivia with her then Alex would be sleeping on the couch. Olivia and Jane are really rather close" Natalie nodded.

"Cool, it's always good to catch up with friends. What have you got planned?"

"I am not exactly sure. Alex is due in late on the Wednesday evening from New York, attending the conference on Thursday and Friday. Olivia is taking the Friday off and will be arriving on the Thursday night. They will head home late on Sunday" Natalie smiled.

"Then you have to bring them over for dinner one night, I'll get Ana to whip up something great for dinner. Sharon, you and Brenda have to come too" I smiled.

"I was just about to offer to have them over to our place for a meal as well. Well, I'll cook, Brenda has many talent's but cooking isn't one of them" Maura cocked her head to one side.

"How did Brenda survive living on her own then?" I smiled at the question.

"A parasitic relationship with far too many of LA's home delivery and take out outlets" Maura smirked.

"Good thing she has you then, that sounds far too much like someone else we both know" Natalie jerked like she'd been stung.

"Hey! I can cook, just not often"

"Really, that is not the impression Jane has conveyed from Natalie"

"And you'd take the word of an FBI agent over your best friend?" Maura smiled happily.

"Yes"

"Why?!"

"Apparently you have a myriad of other talents that she appreciates more, like that little trick you do with your tongue where you..."

"Maura! We have company" Maura looked over at me and smiled, giving me a clandestine wink. I smiled in return, as we silently agreed to tease Natalie; normally the shoe was on the other foot.

"I'm sure Sharon is always interested in improving her technique's, after all, she is tutoring Brenda"

"Tutoring, is that what you're calling it now?"

"Well, Brenda admits she has a lot to learn, fortunately she's an eager student"

"I just bet she is"

"So tell me Nat, what exactly is it you do with your tongue that Ana likes so much"

"I'm sure it's nothing you haven't done before Sharon. Besides; I saw the look on Brenda's face when she came traipsing into work the morning after the weekend you two got together. Believe me, that woman has absolutely no complaints with your technique" I smiled softly, remembering that weekend, drawing smirks from both blondes.

Normally I'm a private person, especially about my relationships, but given the role both of these women had played in getting Brenda and I together, well there was really nothing to worry about. Besides, they were friends, good friends.

"Well, we did quite a bit that weekend that was all new for Brenda, but she's a quick learner. I have no complaints" Maura smiled.

"I would say that is quite obvious, based on the look on your face Sharon"

"I do need to thank you both, without your example, your help and encouragement, Brenda and I wouldn't be this happy" Maura smiled softly.

"It was our pleasure, you and Brenda deserve to be happy, we are just pleased to have been able to help" Natalie nodded.

"If we could help you two get together and be happy then it's been a good year" I smiled softly, reflecting.

"I am happy, really, really happy. In fact I haven't been this happy in years" Natalie nodded.

"We're not meant to be alone Sharon"

"Indeed not, we need company, companionship, love, we need it to be healthy" I felt a thrill go through me when Maura used the L word, made up of equal parts fear and longing.

"It's a bit early for that concept don't you think?" Natalie shrugged, she knew what I meant.

"If it happens, it happens" Maura smiled.

"There is no set timeframe for love, it happens at a time and place of its own choosing" I felt they were moving a bit fast.

"We've only been together for just over a week" Maura looked me in the eye.

"And known each other for how long exactly?" I shrugged, I could see where she was going but I really didn't think it was relevant.

"About five years all up" Natalie nodded slowly.

"And been friends for what, two years and good friends for more than a year?"

"Yes, but we only just got together" Maura smiled.

"Sharon, you have been very close for more than a year and considering each other as lovers for over a month. The fact that you have been intimate for a relatively short time does not detract from the fact that you have been close for much longer" Natalie grinned.

"Hell yeah, Ana and I went from first meeting to deciding we needed each other in under four months. From wanting each other to sleeping together was only a couple of weeks" Maura nodded.

"And how long before you decided that you loved each other?"

"Not long after we got together actually" I raised an eyebrow as she continued.

"Hey, we were both happy, we complimented each other and felt more comfortable together than we'd ever felt with anyone else from day one, we just clicked" Maura nodded.

"Let us be honest Sharon. From the air of happiness that both of you are displaying, you are both where you should be. Brenda is yours and you are hers, all else is irrelevant" Natalie nodded enthusiastically.

"Give love a chance Sharon, it may be a day, a week, a month or a year, but it will happen, as long as you let it. Brenda can love you and you can love her, just don't deny it when it comes, you both deserve the happiness it brings"

I nodded, partly to avoid having this discussion; I really felt it was too quick, too soon for this. If love came, well it would happen in its own time, when Brenda and I had grown together to a point where we were both comfortable to talk about it.

We sat there for a moment, each lost in our thoughts when suddenly Maura's phone rang, shattering the quiet. As she picked it up both Natalie and my phones rang,

"Isles"

"LAPD Media, this is Natalie"

"Raydor, FID"

Thirty seconds later we were in the car and on our way, dispatch had just told us that there had been several officers wounded at the seige and the situation was now resolved. More information would await us arriving on scene, leaving us to expect the worst as there were 'officers down...'

The scene was still cordoned off, according to the uniformed officer who stopped us the building was on fire and there were explosives inside, so we abandoned the car and walked the two blocks to the scene.

As we got closer, I could see an ambulance sitting there amongst the fire trucks and black and whites, before I made out long blonde hair in the centre of a group of people. Next I spotted Anastasia's camouflaged combat gear, apparently so did Natalie as I heard her whispered 'oh thank god' from next to me.

A few steps later Maura sighed in relief as she spotted Jane, but all I could see was Brenda, she was alive, oh god she was alive.

Stepping up to where the Major Crimes squad stood we paused for a moment as we took them in, some dressings on Gabriel and Flynn, but nothing on our girls, thank god.

I went to say something when Natalie threw herself into Ana's arms, sobbing with relief as Ana enfolded her in a hug, Maura followed, Jane wrapping her arms around her as Maura cried softly into her neck.

I stood there, looking Brenda up and down. She was a mess, her clothes grubby, shoes scuffed beyond saving, the skirt she was wearing, a relatively new one she'd bought when we were out shopping a month or two back, ripped and torn. Her hair was dishevelled and there were dirt smudges on her face. I didn't know what to say, I was torn between the sheer joy of knowing she was alive and unhurt and the realisation that she could have easily have died right here, in a dirty L A street.

Looking past her I could see the wreckage of her Crown Vic, holes blown right through it, if anything it made things worse. All I could think was she could have died, just as we were starting out. Was this what Brooke had feared every day?

I folded my arms together to hold in the sudden shakes, suddenly terrified of the thought of losing Brenda before I could tell her what she meant to me. Finally I looked up and sank into eyes of warm chocolate, apprehension swimming in them.

"I thought I told you not to mess up that skirt" I don't know why I said that; it just popped out, some grasp at normality given all that had happened.

Looking at Brenda, she looked like a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar as she looked down and took in the ruined skirt before looking back up at me, her cheeks blushing red. The look in her eyes broke my heart; they were actually filled with regret, as if I meant it when all I cared about was that she was alive.

"I'm sorry" I knew we were going to talk about this later, we had too. It was going to be hard, but we had to, especially if we were going to make us work.

"Oh you will be young lady, later" I suddenly realised how that sounded, but I didn't care. Brenda was here, alive and mine. I looked into those eyes and saw a future I could have so easily lost, that we could have lost.

There was no way I was going to let that happen again. Maura was right, Brenda was mine, I was hers and we belonged together, the rest of the world be damned. I smiled, in relief and gratitude and love.

"But right now, I'm just happy you're ok" Without thinking I stepped forward and grabbed her, pulling her to me as I kissed her. For a second she didn't move, didn't respond, before her mouth opened and her hands slid around my waist and back, holding me tight, as Brenda's tongue slid between my lips.

It just felt right, her body against mine, feeling her vibrancy and life pressed hard up against me, it was all I wanted, to have her and hold her as much as I could.

I was distantly aware that everyone, well maybe not the girls but everyone else, was staring at us, that I'd just made us public, that I should have talked to Brenda about this, about us, but honestly I didn't give a damn.

We'd deal with everything and everyone else later, right now I had Brenda and she had me, nothing else mattered, not now, not ever.


	90. Chapter 90

**Picking up the pieces**

**At the Rizzoli-Isles household**

Jane's viewpoint

When we got home, having headed off as soon as we could, Maura had told me to go take a long shower and get clean.

I'd kinda hoped that she'd come and join me but no such luck unfortunately; instead I'd wandered down to find Maura putting the final touches to a light dinner. She'd changed while I was in the shower, now she was wearing Capri pants, a light blue blouse in some filmy material over a camisole and low heeled sandals; well low heeled for Maura, only two or so inches.

I wandered up behind her, admiring her as she stood there, wondering again for the several millionth time how the hell we'd got so lucky. I loved her with all my heart and she felt the same way, despite all the things that life threw at us we were stronger than ever.

Turning, Maura smiled at me before indicating a hamper sitting on the island bench

"Dinner's ready, I thought we would have a relaxing picnic in the back yard. I smiled as I caught sight of a blanket laid out on the lawn, the idea was perfect, something casual and intimate that made the most of the good weather we were enjoying.

Maura scooped up two glasses and several bottles in a carrier and trailed me out with Jo racing round our ankles, yipping happily. It took a few moments to get her settled, while we got everything set out on the blankets. I was just opening both bottles, a white for her and a beer for me, when I saw Bass come plodding up from under some ferns down the back of the yard.

"Looks like it's a full family dinner tonight" Maura flashed me that amazingly happy smile, the one that filled me with joy, before she turned and pulled out some strawberries and assorted greenery for him.

"No reason Bass should miss out and Jo is being very well behaved" I looked over to where Jo was sitting on her haunches, eyes tracking every movement but content for the moment to wait.

"I'm sure she's just waiting for some food to be left untended for a moment, then she'll be gone and the food with her" Maura just laughed.

"Of course not, Jo has responded very well to her training, I doubt anything will be different tonight" I watched as Maura pulled out a small piece of chicken and placed it in a bowl. Jo just sat there staring at it, though I could see a quiver run through her.

"Yes Jo, food" At Maura's words Jo sprang forward and started eating. I just looked at Maura, one eyebrow lifting. Maura just gave me a very Mona Lisa smile. "She just needed some training and a firm hand" I tried to school my features into a frown, not too successfully.

"Sounds like you know just how to train the Rizzoli women" Her warm smile flashed as I dropped the mock scowl and grinned with her.

"Well Jane, I have had some experience dealing with impetuous Rizzoli's" We chuckled happily together as Maura fished out a picnic dinner of herbed chicken, salads, cheese's and fruit.

The next hour passed comfortably, it was nice, just us with Bass and Jo, the slight breeze taking the edge off the temperature. We talked about a dozen subjects, all inconsequential as we worked through dinner. I knew we were skirting sensitive topics but understood we both needed some normality to reconnect.

Finally, after putting all the leftovers and plates back in the kitchen, I lay back on the blanket and let Maura snuggle up against me, her head on my shoulder and her hand toying with the bottom of my singlet, mine wrapped around her shoulders while Jo snuggled up against my side.

"Jane, have you given any more thought about Brenda's offer to stay here in Los Angeles?" I nodded slowly.

"Yeah, I've been thinking about it, a lot" Maura just nodded, waiting to hear me out. ""I miss Boston, my family, seeing Alex and Liv each month, Frost and Korsak, Susie and Riley, going to see the Red Sox at Fenway, skating in winter, having a white Christmas, lots of stuff" I glanced across at Maura to see her looking at me, as she raised an eyebrow. "What about you?" She gave a gentle shrug.

"I miss your family and our work colleagues as well. While Boston had a lot of poor memories, the last few good years far outweigh the bad" I smiled, turning my head to kiss her temple, I knew exactly what she meant. I let my head fall back to rest on my arm where it lay supporting my head as I spoke.

"But though there's lots of things to miss about Boston, there's lots of other things we've found here" Maura nodded gently as I continued. "Ana and Natalie, Brenda and Sharon, the guys in Major Crimes…" I felt Maura nod.

"I feel the same way. I must say I enjoy the weather out here far more than Boston's winters, plus it puts some distance between us and some entirely too unpleasant memories" I nodded, my mind shying away from thoughts of Hoyt and too many other things.

"Your right, Boston's where we're from but it's not home, home's not a place, it's wherever we are" Maura just snuggled in a little closer, her hand sliding under my top to rest on my stomach as she turned her head to lay a kiss against my cheek. I turned into her and we kissed for a while, just happy to be together. Finally she pulled back a little and rested her head back on my shoulder.

We lay there for a while, not talking, just feeling close and connecting after a bad day, before Maura spoke again, her voice quiet and reflective.

"I thought we were running away from Boston, I really did, from bad memories and bigoted people and the expectations of others. But instead it turned out we running to something better" I turned my head to look into her eyes as she smiled softly at me. "Los Angeles has brought us friendship and acceptance and love and I think we belong here"

I nodded slowly, my eyes never leaving hers.

"I kinda felt that too, especially in recent weeks. I mean the Ball; that really was a bit of a turning point. I mean we were open and out there in front of everyone, but it went really well. I felt like everything was just right, out with friends, being together, no one gave us any grief, just accepted us as we are, it was really right, natural y'know?" Maura thought about it for a moment, before gently nodding.

"I really think having Anastasia and Natalie here really helped as well, they have been wonderful friends since we got here" I nodded, thinking of the nights out, the honesty and openness we'd had with them, they knew more about us than almost anyone but I knew we could trust them to always be there.

"That they have, not to mention Brenda and Sharon…" I heard Maura chuckle.

"Oh yes, I saw the faces of some of the Major Crimes members this morning, I thought poor Lieutenant Provenza was going to have a heart attack, while I was not sure if Lieutenant Flynn was shocked or disappointed" I frowned, looking at her, Flynn?

"Disappointed?" She nodded again.

"I suspect that Lieutenant Flynn carries considerable affection for both Brenda and Sharon, even though he would likely deny it" She smiled at me. "They are both quite attractive women and closer to his age" I thought about that for a moment as I looked up into the darkening sky, seeing the first stars faintly visible in the gathering twilight.

"So he's thinking he missed out?" She nodded.

"But I believe his underlying affection for them both will mean that he will be pleased that they are happy together" I nodded slowly, thinking back to the banter Flynn and Brenda had. Maura was probably right.

"I think the rest of the guys were surprised, but they'll get over it" I felt Maura's hair move under my chin.

"Brenda has been their colleague and their friend for many years; I believe that seeing her happy is the important thing, if it is Sharon who is making her happy, well they will come to accept that. I understand that Sharon's close work with the team in the past 18 months has made her far better known and accepted that she was previously"

"Yeah, they want her to be happy, if it's Sharon, well, like you said they'll get over it. It's not as if they have a choice after all, I sure as hell wouldn't want to stand between those two and what they want"

Maura was quiet for a while, I was wondering if she had drifted off to sleep, when I felt wetness on my shoulder, looking down to see tears slowly running down her face. I knew exactly what she was thinking of as I pulled her to me.

"Hey babe, no tears, everything turned out fine" Maura just pulled me closer, burrowing her head into my neck, her neck muffled.

"Oh Jane, I could have lost you today"

"But you didn't see, not a scratch. I wasn't taking any risks, I had more important things to worry about, like you" Maura just nodded.

"I know, but still…" I could feel the tears on my neck as Maura let the tension out. I just let her cry, my hand stroking and rubbing her back, giving her contact and comfort and a connection. I had to admit I blinked back a few tears, just feeling Maura's tears; I could have lost her, if Weaver's shot had been a foot closer…

Eventually I felt Maura's tears stop, her breathing evening out and then her weight come to rest a little heavier on me. I realised that she had fallen asleep, the emotion and the day having taken a lot out of her. I slid myself out from under her slowly, taking care not to wake her. I smiled gently as I noticed Jo was sound asleep as well. As for Bass, he hadn't moved so he might be asleep, who could tell? I hurried into the house and pulled the sheets down, laying out some comfy sleepwear for us both, before making my way back out to Maura.

I carefully reached down and picked up her light frame up, getting an adorable whine as she objected about the jostling, making me smile, before she snugged her head into my shoulder and drifted off to sleep again. Poor baby, the day had been hard on her too.

Carrying her into the bedroom, I gently laid her down on the sheets, carefully stripping her out of her clothes and hanging them up, knowing Maura'd be annoyed if I didn't, before gently dressing her in an oversized Boston PD T-Shirt and an old pair of my boxers, both well used, soft and comfortable.

I did the same, then moved around the house, locking everything up before climbing into bed beside her, pulling the sheet up to cover us both, snuggling up behind Maura and carefully moving to spoon her, wrapping my arm around her tummy. I smiled as I felt her unconsciously wriggle back into me. Even in sleep we needed to be together, close.

As I lay there, listening to her breathing, soft and gentle, I felt a peace and a calmness wash over me. Both were emotions I'd not had a whole lot of experience of before Maura came into my life.

I'd never expected to find my soul mate with a woman, let alone someone as perfect as Maura, but lying here with her in my arms, I wouldn't change anything at all.

The last thought I had before falling asleep was a comment Maura had made just after we'd first arrived here; that LA was the place where dreams were made. I'd scoffed at the time, but looking back I knew she was right, our dreams had come true here.

**At the Romanov–Dearing residence**

Anastasia's viewpoint

We'd finally escaped work. I'd had a pile of statements to give and paperwork to fill out, both for the Bureau and the LAPD, which had taken most of the afternoon. Nat had been busy managing the circus that Pope's media briefing had turned into, with Peter Collins from Tactical Response and Brenda both being badgered for interviews by reporters from the New York Times to Soldier of Fortune magazine and everyone in between. A scheduled 45 minute media conference had blown out to a 2 hour nightmare.

At least it was now over; we'd managed to bring the case to an end and given some kind of closure to the eight victims. Best of all we hadn't lost anyone, even the injuries to the two Tactical Response guys were reasonably minor, thanks to their heavy armour.

Nat picked me up from the Federal Building and we drove home together, it meant she'd have to drive me in tomorrow but it was worth it to just be close to her. We didn't really talk to much, just little gestures and touches and looks that said pretty much everything we had to. I'd given her quite a scare today and I felt like I had to make it up.

Getting home I whipped up some marinated lamb cutlets and a light salad to go with it, before we sat down over a glass of white to eat and chat. Nat was still a little subdued, not her normal effervescent self, so I felt the urge to do something a little special. We cleaned up and tossed everything in the dishwasher to wash overnight, before I moved into the bathroom and ran a shower, calling out through the door.

"Hey Blondie, c'mere" A few seconds later she appeared in the doorway.

"What's up" She paused at finding me standing naked in the bathroom, a smile spreading slowly. "Need something?"

"Yeah, I'm having a shower, wanna join me?" My smile grew as she started shucking her clothes out into the hall, away from any splashing water.

"Sounds good to me" I stepped in and waited for her to join me, before taking her into my arms and kissing her, long and slow and just feeling her here. Part of me just wanted to push her against the wall and bury my head between her thighs until she screamed and collapsed, but I resolutely pushed that thought out of my mind. As much fun as that would be, I had another mission tonight.

Instead I pulled on her shoulders and turned Natalie around, getting her to stand under the shower while I massaged shampoo into her hair, hearing her gentle purr as I massaged her scalp with my nails. Finally, having washed every strand of hair, I rinsed her off and then went back in with conditioner, repeating the process, hearing her sighs as I massaged her scalp again. I could feel her relaxing under my touch, which was what I wanted.

Finishing with the hair I grabbed the loofah and loaded it with plenty of body wash, before starting at her shoulders and slowly working down her back, gently scrubbing every inch of her. I didn't do this as often as I should and listening to Nat's happy hum as my hands ran over her I wondered why not. Mentally admonishing myself to arrange this more often I worked down her lower back and onto her ass cheeks, hearing a soft groan as I did. I had to bite down on my desire, as I considered just pushing her forward against the shower wall and fucking her where she stood, but this wasn't about me, it was all for Nat.

Kneeling, I worked down her endless legs, getting her to lift first one foot then the other as I scrubbed the soles of her feet, paying attention to her instep, getting a giggle in return as Nat was a little ticklish there. I wondered if I needed to exfoliate her heels where callouses from her high heels formed but they were soft, she'd probably done it herself in the past few days.

I finally got her to turn around and place one foot on my knee as I worked over the foot, ankle and shin; just enjoying having her under my fingers and hearing her soft sighs and groans. I swapped to the other leg before working up both thighs. As I washed her inner thighs and pussy I could hear Nat's soft moans, forcing me to resolutely stomp down on my rising libido. God, the things I do for this woman…

I looked up to see eyes of crystal blue looking down at me, soft and relaxed, but the contemplative look she was giving almost made me come undone right there. I cupped my hand to rinse her off between her thighs before moving up over her tummy, hearing a soft groan that might have been disappointment reach my ears, making me smile. Looks like I wasn't the only one finding it hard.

Slowly I lathered across her torso and sides, before gently washing her breasts. Her nipples were long and hard, and screaming out for attention but I once again stomped down on my desire and kept washing, getting a little pout as I moved up to her shoulders.

"You're very focused tonight Ana" I smiled.

"My treat" She looked puzzled.

"Whatever for?" I caught her eyes for a moment as I reloaded the loofah.

"Just cause" Obviously she decided to let it be, as she said nothing, just watching me through half closed eyes as I washed both arms, working the soap in and around her fingers and palms, getting another gentle hum of pleasure.

Finally wrapping up and turning down her offer to reciprocate, I hung the loofah on the tap and turned the water off. Stepping out I gathered several fresh fluffy towels and drew her out of the shower, enveloping her in the soft cotton and patting her dry.

"Oh Tsarina, I could get really used to this" I just chuckled at her soft and sleepy tone; my cunning plan was having the desired effect. I quickly toweled myself dry, before turning her around and towel drying her hair and then carefully running first my fingers, then a brush through her hair, straightening it out gently.

Finishing that I took her hand and led her into the bedroom, where I spread several towels across the sheets and pillows before getting her to lay face down on them. As I stood up I heard her plaintive call.

"Where are going?"

"Don't worry, I'll be right back" I'd actually had a bottle of her favorite skin care lotion resting in hot water, warming it up. Retrieving it I made my way back into the bedroom and moved to the bed, kneeling next to her.

"Missed you" Nat's voice was low and a little sleepy, just as I wanted.

"Wasn't gone long, now lie there and relax" Opening the bottle I squirted a bit into my hands, it was nice and warm. Working it over my hands I leaned forward, moving her hair out of the way as I started on her shoulders, being rewarded with a slow groan of pleasure.

Over the next hour I worked completely down her body to her toes and back again, in a combination massage and skin care treatment. Nat's moans and groans and sighs had me smiling throughout it, by the time I'd worked my way back up to her shoulders and finished working out the tension there she was a boneless mass of jelly, purring gently under my fingers.

Finally finishing, I looked to see Natalie was quickly falling asleep so I put everything away, before joining her on the bed and snuggling up close, pulling her into my arms and feeling her burrow closer.

"That was lovely Ana, so lovely…"

"I'm sorry I scared you today, I really am" I felt her nod against my shoulder before her voice came to me, soft and sleepy and warm.

"I would never stop you doing your job, you know that" I smiled.

"I know, I just knew you were worried though"

"Just promise you'll always come back to me" I buried my nose in her hair, smelling the apple scent of her products, feeling the wonderfully soft skin of her back under my fingers, both soft from the lotion.

Unconsciously I sighed in happiness, I had everything I'd ever dreamed of here, cuddling into me and making me happy just by being there.

"Always"

As I lay there I could feel Natalie dropping off to sleep, her arms and body wrapping around me like a soft, warm cover, keeping the cold and the darkness at bay. The last thing I heard was her faint, sleepy voice.

"Love you"

Pressing a final kiss to her forehead, I happily drifted off to join her in sleep.

**Home with Brenda and Sharon**

Brenda's viewpoint

After one of the longer day's I've had in the LAPD in a long time, I was just glad to slink out of headquarters and head back to my apartment. After that interminable press conference I couldn't wait to see Sharon. I texted her to let her know I was collecting a set of clothes for tomorrow and would be over after that and to ask if she want me to pick up take out.

I got a reply telling me all she wanted was me and to hurry home. I paused for a moment, tripping over that word, home. I knew Sharon had probably used it unconsciously but the thought of making a home with Sharon was one that should have scared me but didn't, in fact it kinda felt right.

I raced through my apartment, grabbing a change of clothes and was back in my car in less than five minutes, making the now-familiar trip to Sharon's place. I rang the bell and Sharon answered, looking relaxed in a polo shirt and running shorts, allowing me to sneak a peek at her legs, all the way down to a comfy pair of flip flops. We both leaned in for a slow and comfortable kiss, before Sharon stepped back and invited me in.

Inside I hung everything up in a closet, shucking my jacket and hanging it up next to them before kicking my shoes off and wandering barefoot out into the kitchen.

Sharon was leaning back against the bench next to the sink, waiting for me, so I grabbed another kiss before she handed me a glass of a nice red, making me smile. The kitchen was full of mouthwatering aromas.

"Hey sweetie, what's cooking, it smells great"

"The Raydor family meatloaf, my kids loved it so I used to cook it when one of them had a bad day. With raising two kids we got to eat it more regularly than I liked, but they loved it. I haven't really cooked it much since they moved out, but it felt like the right thing, the right time tonight"

I was touched, not just because of the sentiment, but cause I got to see a little more of the Raydor onion peeled, each time I discovered a little more of the complex creature that was Sharon Raydor. I loved hearing little stories like this, as she opened up.

I'd long ago decided that I wouldn't really dig with Sharon, I'd let her tell me about her life in her own time, rather than feel like she had to spill everything to me all at once. Each time she did made it special.

'I like meatloaf and yours smells wonderful, I can't wait" We stood there for a while, standing side by side, leaning back against the bench. We didn't say much but we ended up just holding hands, enjoying the closeness.

I could see why Sharon's kids kept coming back for her meatloaf; it was great, filled with all sorts of spices that made it interesting in a really good way. I happily ate my way through two small servings with vegies as we slowly worked on a second glass of wine each.

Sharon finished hers and watched me across the table, as I got a little nervous. Looking up I raised an eyebrow in question.

"Sorry about today" I felt my eyebrows shoot up, what was Sharon apologizing about?

"Whatever are you apologising for? Cause if your apologising for caring, I'm gonna be pissed"

"Today, at the scene, I should have talked to you first. I had no right to make that decision alone" I shrugged; I was actually pretty calm about it, more than I thought I would be when I'd considered how we might come out at work.

"No use crying over spilled milk, it was bound to come out sooner or later. The only surprise is you did it, I always thought it'd be me doing something silly and letting the cat out of the bag" I pulled a wry face. "Now's as good a time as any I s'pose"

Sharon contemplated me over as she gently swirled the dregs of her wine around the bottom of her glass.

"You're actually a lot calmer about this than I thought you'd be honey" Finishing the last of my vegies and feeling really well fed I sat back.

"I told you, I wanted to shout it from the rooftops that you make me so happy. I guess this works just as well" It seemed Sharon was more worried about this than me; I suppose she had more experience about the downsides of being in a lesbian relationship but for the life of me I couldn't get excited. I had Sharon, everything else paled besides that thought.

"Pope's going to give us hell about this" I chuckled.

"No sweetie, Pope will try and give us hell, but he's gonna loose" Looking back, Sharon's insistence that we talk to HR early on was proving a godsend; it took away any leverage Pope might have had. Thank god for Sharon doing things by the book.

"He can huff and puff an all, but not much else, besides, he makes a pretty pathetic big bad wolf" Sharon gave me a smile, all crinkled eyes and laugh lines.

"I never really envisioned the big bad wolf with a bald spot" We laughed happily together, just sharing the moment, god she was lovely, Sharon needed to laugh more often. I wanted to see her laugh all the time, to be the one to make her laugh.

"Mind you, he's got the whole huffing and puffing thing down pat, the old windbag" We smiled again, a comfortable feeing between us. Finally Sharon slowly pulled her glasses off and rubbed at her eyes.

"I'll have to tell my team tomorrow, it's only fair they hear it from me, given your squad knows. I don't want them to find out via water cooler gossip, they deserve to hear about it directly from me"

I nodded, as I stood up and gathered the plates. Together we rinsed everything and packed the dishwasher before ending up on the couch, before too long I was snuggled up against her with our fingers entwined. We had got around to discussing other people's reactions, laughing mostly.

"I thought Gabriel's eyes were going to pop out of his head" I shook my head at the memory, poor David. Sharon was still giggling though, which was a revelation in itself, Sharon Raydor a giggler.

"I thought Provenza was going to have a stroke, I swear no one's supposed to have a face turn that shade of red" I giggled with her as she continued. "I was hoping it wasn't though, in case someone had to give mouth to mouth…" We both pulled faces at the thought, before laughing. It was all so easy, my head on her shoulder, hers resting against mine, it all felt so very much like home.

"Buzz was just standing there smirking, but that's cause he'd kinda worked it out before" Sharon's head pulled back as she looked at me in surprise.

"Really? How?" I just smiled; I didn't want to move from where my head was resting, I was comfy.

"Natalie told me that she'd overheard him telling Michael Tao at the Ball that if we were getting on any better then we needed to change our Facebook status" Her laugh was quick and rich.

"Smart man" We sat there for a moment, before I asked something that had been bothering me for a while.

"Sharon, how open can we be?"

"What do you mean honey, you mean at work?" I nodded, staring down at our entwined fingers.

"Can we touch; hold hands, kiss and cuddle?" I felt her lips place a soft kiss at the crown of my head.

"As long as it's just us and no one's watching, yes. Otherwise we have to be professional about it"

"God, it's gonna be hard sweetie"

"I know Brenda, but they're the LAPD rules. Thank god we don't work together, otherwise they'd split us up, one of us would be moved to another division" I nodded.

"That's hard"

"On the other hand, no rules when were not at work"

"Good, cause I wanna spend all my time with you"

"So do I sweetie, so do I" We just sat there for a while, just being close, I don't know what Sharon felt, but I was feeling very warm and content, I could have lost this, out there today, never had Sharon snuggled up against me tonight. I had to say something.

"Sharon, I wanted to tell you something, I was going to tell you this morning in your office, but it wasn't the right time, I didn't feel it was something I should say then, but…" Sharon interrupted me.

"I know Brenda, I feel it too, but it's too early to say it just yet, but we're getting there" I nodded.

"We are, it's kinda scary, I've never fallen this hard, this fast ever"

"Me neither and I don't understand it" I laughed softly.

"Well, the sex is incredible" Her voice was scolding, but with a throaty undertone, Sharon trying not to laugh.

"Brenda!" I grinned.

"Well it is" We sat there for a while, just snuggling together, before Sharon spoke again, her voice soft.

"We're going to make mistakes Brenda, fight, do stupid things that hurt, but I want us to work, I want us to be…us" I swallowed, at her words and the soft, gentle tone in Sharon's voice. I pulled away and turned to face her, pulling my legs under me.

"Right now, I don't want… I can't imagine there not being an us"

"Brenda, it's too early to say it's…" I nodded; I knew exactly what she meant. "But it's obvious we need to be together, I mean we both feel it, the attraction" Her hand swung back and forward between us. I nodded again. I felt it, the need to be with her, even if we were doing nothing at all.

We were quiet for a while, just sitting there, facing each other, before Sharon spoke again.

"Now I understand what Brooke went through. I couldn't work, I spent my entire time sitting there scared that something would happen to you" I couldn't help it; I could feel tears gathering at the corners of my eyes and I could see Sharon was struggling so I just reached out and dragged her into a hug, just feeling her close. I don't know how long we were like that but I didn't care. Sharon needed this, I needed this and that's all that mattered.

Finally we pulled apart and looked at each other. I hated the sad look on her face, I wanted her to smile again, but I knew this was important.

"Sharon sweetie, the shoe could be on the other foot tomorrow, it could be me worrying and fretting 'bout you" Sharon nodded as I continued. "Lets agree that we both have careers that will put us in danger but we'll do everything we can to be safe"

"Brenda, as long as you think of me before doing anything dangerous, that's all I can ask for" I smiled.

"As long as you do the same for me, that's all I can possibly ask for too" We both smiled for a moment, before snuggling in together. I don't know how long we were like that before I pulled back a bit and looked at her.

"Sharon, earlier, I know I was saying the sex is amazing an all but…" Sharon looked at me, her brow furrowing.

"Yes honey?"

"Tonight, can we just cuddle?"

"Brenda Leigh Johnson; you're turning down sex?"

"Yeah, pathetic isn't it?"

"No honey, it's not pathetic at all" She smiled and I leaned in, getting a kiss from her

We sat there for a while, just snuggled together, feeling each other, holding each other close, it was calming and just felt so good that I didn't want it to stop. I could feel myself getting tired, the stress of the day catching up. Finally, I yawned, despite trying to smother it Sharon must have heard or felt it, cause she leaned back and looked at me.

"C'mon Brenda, lets go to bed" I realised it was earlier than we normally went to bed, and I hated to think she was doing it just cause I was tired.

"You sure? It's still early"

"Let me think, sit here and watch idiotic rom-coms and stupid cop shoes or cuddle my gorgeous girlfriend in bed? What do you think?" I smiled back at her.

"I think cuddling my beautiful girlfriend sounds really good right now"

"C'mon then honey, lets cuddle" As we got up a thought came to me.

"Sharon, what did you mean today, when you said I'd be sorry, 'bout wrecking the skirt and all" I got an evil smile.

"Oh you will be, I'm just working out a suitable punishment, something worthy, fitting and enjoyable, at least for me" She slowly winked, as I started to get a little heated.

"As long as I get to enjoy it too"

"I can't guarantee that, but I'll have fun" My voice was a whine, even I could hear it.

"Sharon..." She just laughed as we headed into the bedroom. "C'mon, give me a hint"

Stopping in the doorway she glanced back over her shoulder.

"You, me, handcuffs and toys" I paused for all of two seconds.

"I thought I was supposed to be sorry. That doesn't sound like I will be" Her voice floated back to me from through the bedroom door, amusement rich in her voice.

"Oh you will be honey, sore and sorry" I scampered through the door after her.

We didn't do as much cuddling as I thought we would, but when Sharon Raydor's in bed with you and sex is an option, you'd be a fool to say no.


	91. Chapter 91

**A/N** This story is rated M for a reason, this chapter being one of them.

This chapter contains depictions of consenting adults doing what consenting adults do when they feel like it, so if sexual content isn't your thing, please skip the chapter and move on.

**Paying the penalty**

Sharon's viewpoint

'_My place; 7 PM, do NOT be late. Your punishment will start then_'. The text was short and to the point.

I smirked as I put the phone down, knowing full well what that text would do to a woman with the imagination of Brenda Leigh Johnson. I idly wondered if she had a spare pair of panties with her, certain her current ones would be well and truly ruined by the time she got home.

Brenda had turned out to be a remarkably responsive lover, a wicked combination of enthusiasm, sensitivity and kink that made her great fun, in or out of bed. She'd taken to the whole 'lesbian sex' thing with enthusiasm, making love to her was wonderful, holding her between bouts or afterwards was even better.

She loved to pull me to her, wrap herself around me and let me burrow into her embrace, making me feel safe and warm and cared for. I'd missed that, the closeness, the tenderness, the feeling of being wanted, Brenda clearly adored me, a feeling I returned in spades.

Tonight was about playing a bit of a game. I was interested in a little creative role playing, some gentle dominance games, nothing too heavy, just some fun. I had to say Brenda was not the only one dealing with a few clothing issues, just the thought of tonight's games had me wriggling in my seat all afternoon.

I managed to escape the office at five this afternoon, nodding goodbye to the squad as I walked out. One or two of them might have raised an eyebrow at me escaping at that time, usually I worked late most nights, but no one said anything.

They'd taken the news that I was dating someone well, though there had been a few surprised looks when they found out who. Partly it was the fact that it was a woman, but mostly exactly which woman. I knew our old fights had been well known, but I wasn't aware that they had become something of an LAPD legend until Elliot had gently brought it up after a meeting, mentioning that it had been a surprise.

"Are you happy?" I'd smiled.

"God yes, very happy" He'd smiled.

"Glad to hear it. After the legendary fights you two had when she first started, I wouldn't have bet against you shooting her"

"Or her shooting me" He'd laughed and shook his head.

"Nah, I'd have my money on you, I've learnt not to bet against you" I smiled.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence" I paused. "Is everyone else OK with it?" He shrugged.

"Generally yes, I won't lie, one or two were surprised you were gay, everyone was stunned that it was Chief Johnson, but you've been happy these last few weeks, we all saw that, so if you're happy we're happy" I chuckled.

"Funny, that's pretty much the same message the Chief got from her squad. They'd no idea that Brenda was interested in women. She was quick to point out it was only one woman and she was happy. A few had issues with which woman, but they want her happy. Apparently she's much easier to work for if she's happy" Elliot grinned.

"Sounds like someone else I know" We'd laughed and turned to work matters. Generally it had all gone as well as we could have hoped, but it was still early days, we were still going to have to deal with Pope but Brenda and I had agreed we'd put that off until we had to.

I headed home, I had a few preparations to make before Brenda got there, props to get set up and things to arrange, if all went well we were going to have a fun evening, one I was looking forward to with more than a little evil anticipation.

I made a light salad and put it in the fridge, no doubt we'd be hungry later, then wandered into the second bedroom where I kept my less commonly worn clothes, coats, ski gear, formal dresses and such. It was also where I kept my small collection of leather clothes. Brenda had made it clear she was dying to see me in some sooner rather than later, tonight I'd decided that some leather would suit what I had planned.

I stripped off my work suit and pulled out tonight's clothes before grabbing a quick shower. A fresh set of panties was followed by my black leather trousers, they sat snug on my hips and tight across my butt, their tight cut making my legs look longer than they were. Next came a pair of patent leather boots, their three inch heels contributing to make me look even taller and more intimidating.

On top I wore my black leather jacket, not bothering with a bra, the jacket lining was silk and soft on my skin. The jacket was a close cut, hugging me tight as I zipped it up to the neck and finally a pair of short leather gloves completed the look, encasing me in black leather. Brooke had called it the Matrix look; I rather fancied it as something a dominatrix might wear.

Wandering back out to the lounge, I set the air conditioning a little lower, all this leather looked great but was hot to wear, not to mention the cooler air would keep Brenda's skin tingling. Finally I picked up some toys from the bedside drawers and made my way to the lounge room again where I unlocked the front door then placed a set of heels near the door to the hall, turning off the lights and closing all the drapes, plunging the room into darkness broken only by the light spilling in from the hall.

I finished as the clock neared seven, I grinned, knowing Brenda would be right on time, eager to see what I had planned. I made a few last minute preparations and then sat back in the big armchair and waited. Two minutes later the digital clock on the DVD player said seven, fifteen seconds later the doorbell rang. I smiled, 'game on'.

"Come in" The door opened and Brenda stood there, still dressed in her work clothes. She stepped in, obviously surprised by the dark. "Step into the hallway and lock the door"

Doing as she was told, Brenda stepped into the doorway, peering in, though the light in the hall made it almost impossible to see anything in the darkened lounge room.

"Strip Brenda, right now" She hesitated for a moment, before dropping her bag and unbuttoning her jacket, turning to hang it on the coat stand by the door. Her blouse, heels, bra and panties followed, until she stood there bare. She still hadn't said a word, which I took as a good sign that she was into what we were doing.

"In front of you is a pair of heels, put them on"

I watched as she looked down, seeing a pair of black Prada heels, I'd got them for Brenda to wear with her little black dress, they weren't cheap, black strappy peep toes with a four inch heel; I'd been dying to seeing Brenda in them since I'd first seen them in the store.

I probably had a borderline shoe fetish, high heels did it for me, wearing them made me feel sexy and powerful and feminine, seeing others wearing them was an illicit but delightful pleasure, their legs on show, strong and defined. Maura and Natalie looked amazing in them, so did Jane and Ana at the Ball, but to see Brenda put them on and stand in front of me naked…

I'd been seriously turned on by the mental image, the reality was even better.

"Turn around, slowly Brenda, slowly" She pirouetted as I admired her standing there in front of me, just grateful that my girlfriend was so gorgeous and sexy and willing to play my game tonight.

"Lovely Brenda, you look lovely just as you are" I saw the ghost of a smile on her lips at my praise. For all her strengths and accomplishments Brenda was a woman, we all had our insecurities; we all loved to be complimented, especially by the one we loved.

Deep down I knew I was falling in love with Brenda, just as I knew she was falling for me. It was very fast for both of us, but what we were building together felt so right. Neither of us had said it yet, but I knew one of us would, sooner or later, and then the other would say it too and it would be true, those three, simple, potent, life-changing words.

I pulled myself back to the present, I had a naked and willing Brenda in front of me and I'd planned a fun night for both of us.

"Take four steps forward and kneel" I watched as she did, kneeling there in the dim light. I gave her a moment for her eyes to adjust, however all she could see was the big armchair in front of her. "I told you that you would be punished, as you've no doubt worked out, tonight is the night" I paused for a moment but Brenda was quiet, obviously willing to play. "You may speak if you feel the need, however you will address me as 'mistress', is that clear?" I watched as Brenda swallowed and licked her lips before she spoke, her voice low and husky.

"Yes mistress" I could see Brenda was happy to play, her nipples were hard, signposts to her arousal, hopefully she was also wet and humming. For a moment I just took her in, kneeling there in the dim light, my eyes had become accustomed to the poor light so I could see her clearly, enjoying everything about her, she looked so lovely there, '_how did I get so lucky_'.

Realising I was dithering when we could be doing so much more fun things, I stood up and took a step forward partly into the dim light, seeing Brenda's jaw drop at the sight of me in head to toe tight black leather, another step forward and I saw her jaw drop even further as she realised I had our strap on secured around my hips over the leather. Slowly her tongue licked her lips as I sauntered forward.

"Like what you see?" She nodded slowly as she bit her lower lip. "Well?"

"Oh yes mistress"

I smiled and held out a set of wrist restraints, leather cuffs secured with buckles, lined with soft fur and joined by several chromed steel links. They screamed quality and eroticism and I watched Brenda's eyes widen as she took them in from where they dangled from my finger.

"These were a gift from Natalie; apparently she bought three sets, one for her and Ana, another for Maura and Jane and these for us. As you can imagine I was very grateful, I've wanted you naked and cuffed for so long" Brenda stared at them, her eyes wide as she realised what I was going to do to her. "Hold your hands out honey"

Realising I wasn't going to cuff her hands behind her, Brenda held them out as I buckled them together, in seconds they were secure and I let them fall, watching as Brenda unconsciously tested their hold, before letting them drop into her lap.

"I cuffed you in front because I have uses planned for your hands, they're no use to me behind your back" Brenda's reply was soft and breathy.

"Thank you mistress" I took a step back to the coffee table, picking up a riding crop and stepping across to stand next to Brenda. It actually had belonged to Heather from when she had done dressage as a teenager. I'd rediscovered it in a box packed away six months ago and put it aside, meaning to give it to her the next time we caught up, now I had a new use for it.

Brenda's eyes were glued to the crop as I idly flicked her nipple with the end of it, gentle but making her gasp in surprise at the touch. The crop's tip toyed with the nipple for a moment, before running around her breast, then moving across to the other. Brenda was pushing her chest forward, seeking the touch. Her nipples were a delight, long and sensitive, as I'd discovered on our first night together she could come and come hard just from having enough attention paid to them.

Gently I flicked the other nipple, making her start, for the next few seconds I flicked idly back and forth across her nipples, not enough to hurt, but enough to make her feel it, before allowing it to slide up her chest and neck and against her cheek. I watched as she unconsciously turned her head slightly towards where it touched her. So lovely and so very responsive…

"You need to be punished Brenda, what should I do to you?" The question was rhetorical, I didn't expect an answer but Brenda surprised me.

"Anything you want mistress" I stood there for a moment, realising Brenda was showing her trust in me, placing herself in my hands, sure that I would take care of her.

"Oh honey, I want to do so much to you, my problem is I don't know where to start"

Brenda twisted her torso to face me and leaned forward, her eyes on mine as her head moved towards my hips.

"Please mistress, let me..." I blinked, suddenly realising what she was offering, I immediately dropped the game; this was serious.

"Are you sure Brenda?" She nodded; obviously she wanted to do this, to please me.

"Please Sharon?" I thought about it, what she was offering. I'd not even considered it, I was planning on a little spanking, some teasing, making her pleasure herself while I watched and then finish it off by bending her over the couch and doing her, I knew she loved that.

But this, this was a surprise. It spoke of a willingness to do something for me that I would never have asked. In my mind, this was something her ex-husbands may have demanded to show their control over her, forcing her to do it as proof of her devotion. Brooke had never done it to me and I'd certainly not done it for her but here was Brenda asking for my permission to do this.

This strong, proud woman was willing to do this, just because she thought it would please me. I thought for a moment, the idea that she would do this for me was a humbling one, to do something so…base, so carnal.

Seeing no objection Brenda leaned forward, her tongue reaching out to touch the end of the toy, then circling it. As I watched she brought her hands up from her lap, holding the base of the dildo and tilting it up as her tongue ran up along the underside of its length. Keeping her eyes on mine she slowly lowered the toy until it was facing her, before she kissed the end and then slid it between her lips.

There was a groaning moan; mine I realised, as I watched Brenda's mouth slide down the dildo and then back up. I had to bite my lip as she slid her lips down again, taking more into her mouth, again and again she forced more and more into her mouth as her eyes remained locked with mine.

I moaned at the sight through narrowed eyes, while I obviously couldn't feel her lips, the visual was doing my head in, I was soaking wet and turned on beyond belief.

"Oh god Brenda, you have no idea what seeing you doing that does to me" I could see her lips turn up at the ends in a smile, before she lifted her head off and looked at me.

"Thank you mistress" I stared at her, as she smiled gently, aware of what she was doing to me, before her head swooped again and captured the dildo, sliding it in and out. Letting go of it with her hands, Brenda slid them around my leg, then up my thigh, as her head started to bob up and down on my 'cock', her eyes still on mine.

I was desperately pleased I wasn't a guy, certain that seeing Brenda doing that to my cock would have sent me over the edge if I was. While there was no direct stimulus from her fellatio, the sheer eroticism of what I was seeing had kicked my arousal into overdrive.

Without realising, I brought one hand down to strike her cheek, seeing her close her eyes for a moment as the leather caressed her skin,

I stood there for a moment, staring at my beautiful lover, her mouth worshipping my 'cock' like that, then bent down, the action pulling the dildo away from her mouth, as I leaned down and kissed her, my tongue diving between her lips, our tongues duelling and twisting, our moans intermingled. She tasted of Brenda and something else, belatedly I realised it was the taste of the dildo, I groaned again as I realised what she'd done, for me.

What had I done to deserve her? I didn't know, all I knew was I was more fortunate than I'd ever believed possible, to have a woman so amazing, so loving, as mine.

Finally I stood back again, letting the toy move towards her as I caressed her cheek again.

"That was lovely Brenda, but don't stop now" She smirked at me, she knew what this was doing to me, the dreadful tease. I gently moved my hand to the back of her head as she leaned forward, her lips wrapping around the end of the dildo, before her mouth encased it, sliding more than half of it inside her mouth.

Looking down at her, seeing her lips slide up and down, my hand resting on the back of her head, I felt my own arousal spike, I could understand now why guys wanted women to go down on them, the visual alone was amazing, if I could've felt it as well, if my 'cock' had been real, I'm certain I would have come already.

Finally I stepped back, a little shakily; I had to, before my legs gave way. Brenda smiled at me then licked her lips, she knew what she'd done to me and I knew it. She stood and held out her hands, asking without words to be released. I raised my eyebrow; this wasn't how I'd planned it. Brenda just smiled and spoke, low and throaty.

"I can be a lot more fun with both hands free sweetie" I nodded, reaching forward, undoing the cuffs, a little clumsy in my haste to get Brenda into bed.

Brenda looked up from her wrists, a wicked smirk on her face, before she stepped forward, snuggling up against my side, as her lips sought mine. I don't know how long I stood there, one arm around her, the other hand making meaningless patterns on her tummy, lost in her kisses, before I felt the zip on my jacket slowly sliding down. I pulled my head back and looked at her, to see her trying to fake an innocent expression, badly.

"And what are you up to?"

"Only fair sweetie, you got to see me, I get to see you" I smiled.

"I thought you wanted to see me in leather?"

"Oh I did and I still do, but I want to see you out of it even more" She leaned back in for another kiss and we lost ourselves in each other again, as her hand finished its journey, undoing the zip. Before I realised it her hand had slipped inside the jacket, her hum of delight as she discovered I didn't have a bra on underneath made her enjoyment obvious, as did the way her fingers sought out my nipple.

Finally, she stepped back a bit, before her hands started pushing and pulling the jacket off my shoulders, impatience visible on her face.

"C'mon Sharon, off" I moved to pull the jacket off. "You looked amazing and I want to see you in that again, but right now, bed" I dropped the jacket on the floor, as Brenda's eyes raked over my body. "Yeah, bed" With that she grabbed my hand and half led, half dragged me into the bedroom, where she turned me round against the bed and kissed me soundly, before pushing me back so I fell back onto the soft catch of the mattress.

"Someone's eager" Brenda just smirked as she moved to kneel on the bed.

"You have no idea Sharon, now scoot back up the bed and lie back" I moved further up until I was lying on my back, as Brenda smiled somewhat predatorily down at me.

"There is another benefit to having you like this" Her voice trailed off as she lifted her leg over my waist and straddled me, before sliding her hips back, one hand supporting her balance, the other reaching behind her to steady the toy. She raised herself up, before slowly sliding down on the dildo, her mouth opening and eyes fluttering shut as she impaled herself on it.

I was mesmerised by the vision, plus the sight of her breasts dangling right in front of me, so temptingly close…

Her head dropped back as she slid further down, a low moan escaping her as she bottomed out, before Brenda wiggled her hips, getting herself settled just so and sending a jolt through me where the other end of the toy pressed into my groin through the trousers. Still with her eyes closed, Brenda spoke in a low, dreamy tone that made me smile.

"Oh god Sharon, that's nice, so full, you feel so nice inside me…" I stared up at her, taking her in, she was magnificent, her back arched, her breasts thrust forward, as both hands unconsciously slid up her body to cup her breasts, fingertips tweaking her nipples. She groaned, then gasped slightly as she wiggled again, feeling the toy push against her walls.

"Y'know what's the best part of this sweetie?" Her head came forward as her eyes opened, staring down at me as a lazy smile curved her lips. I lay there, smiling back as my hands slid up her thighs and came to rest on her hips.

"I could think of lots of things, but what exactly" Feeling my hands on her hips she gave a little shimmy, settling even further down again on the toy as we both hummed happily.

"I get to lie here, connected to you, all filled up, while I look at you" Her eyes slid over my body.

"Touch you" Brenda's hands slid off her breasts and down, coming to rest on mine, as she palmed them, her hands warm on my nipples. She dropped forward to rest on my chest, her mouth dropping open with a gasp and her eyes slamming shut for a moment as the move made the toy press inside her even harder. Coming to rest above me, she forced her eyes open, panting softly.

"And I get to taste you" With that she leaned slowly down, covering my mouth with hers. I don't know how long we lay there, Brenda straddling me, as we kissed, my hands drawing lazy patterns on her back and toying with her hair, it might have been two minutes, it may have been twenty; we were lost, lost in each other.

Every now and then Brenda would wriggle slightly, obviously feeling the dildo inside her, each time the move made the other end move as well, keeping me humming. Finally she pulled back a little to look at me, as I forced my eyes open, missing her lips, I saw her looking down at me, her eyes full of desire and tenderness.

"There's only one thing I want more than to lay here with you like this all night sweetie" I smiled.

"And what might that be" She smirked.

"I want you to get me off" I chuckled.

"Typical, only thinking of yourself" Brenda just smiled even wider at the teasing.

"I was actually thinking of you"

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, the faster you get me off, the quicker I get to return the favour" '_Oh, well in that case…_'

"Sit up honey" She pushed herself up until she was sitting there straddling my hips. I feasted on the visual for a moment, Brenda all naked and flushed and aroused and all mine.

Slowly I pulled my legs up, bending them behind her and digging my heels in, I was going to need the leverage, while I settled my hands around her waist. I slowly rolled my hips, causing the dildo to move within her, drawing a little gasp as she responded. Slowly I pushed up a bit, drawing another tiny sigh as the dildo buried itself just a fraction deeper.

I pulled my hips back for a moment, seeing Brenda's eyes flutter at the sensation, before I thrust upwards gently, dragging a gasp from her as the toy buried itself in her, before pulling away again. We fell into an easy rhythm, as she rode herself up and down on my 'cock', in unconscious repetition of her earlier ministrations, this time another set of lips sliding up and down the dildo, while she supported herself with her hands on my breasts, fingers on my nipples.

Together, words neither needed or spoken, we slowly picked up the pace, as Brenda rose further and further up the toy, before dropping down as I thrust up in synchronised rhythm, each time drawing a gasp or a moan or a groan from her. My hands were on her hips, dragging her down onto me as we stopped making love and started fucking, Brenda's head thrown back, blonde hair flying as she came closer and closer to her peak, sweat dripping down over her face and breasts as I too sweated in exertion, desperate to drive her to a shattering climax.

I don't know how long we were like that, the room full of our gasps, moans and cries, each other's names on our lips, together with curses and begging, her fingers pinching and twisting my nipples, before her back arced and her body stiffened, as she screamed my name, shuddering and shaking from the climax slamming through her, before she collapsed bonelessly, falling on top of my chest, the toy still buried deep in her.

Unconsciously she blindly wrapped her arms around me, before plastering my face with sloppy, open mouthed kisses, desperate to convey her gratitude and joy, something I returned in equal measure.

Finally, exhaustion took us, as we lay there; feeling each other's hearts pounding and chests heaving from the exertions, as we slowly came down.

Finally Brenda spoke, her voice soft and slow.

"Oh god Sharon, so good, that was so good" I smiled, my eyes still closed as I basked in having her here, lying tangled with me.

""It was honey, I love watching you get off" There was a low chuckle; I felt it as she lay there, before she spoke again.

"I know how you feel sweetie, I love making you come too" I opened my eyes to see her face only inches from mine, before our lips sought each other out again. We kissed slowly and tenderly for a while, before Brenda slowly pulled away, gingerly sitting up again. Seeing her astride me, I gently rolled my hips again, getting a slight gasp in response.

"Not just yet sweetie, I'm still recovering" I chuckled.

"Aw, poor baby, was I too rough" She shook her head, sending her curls flying.

"Nope, I just need a few seconds" True to her words she lay there for a moment, before slowly rising up and off the dildo, which was wet from her arousal. She rolled to a sitting position and sat there, looking at me, a smirk slowly appearing.

"What?"

"I think we need to get you naked Sharon" She reached out to start unbuckling the straps around my hips. Together we managed to get it off, before Brenda lifted it to her mouth, running her tongue along the length of the phallus and smiling, as a jolt of arousal burned through me. With a smile she leaned over, holding the strap-on by the base and held it to me.

"Open up sweetie" A second, even bigger rush burned through me as I realised what she wanted. I opened my mouth and she gently held it to my lips, before carefully sliding the first inch or so inside, as I savoured Brenda's unmistakable taste on my tongue. I licked and sucked at it for a few seconds, my eyes on Brenda's as I saw her eyes darken, I wasn't the only one being turned on by what we were doing. Finally, she spoke.

"I think we need you out of those trousers Sharon, right now" She gently withdrew the toy from my mouth, my tongue unconsciously chasing after it for a moment, before I realised what I was doing. She chuckled, a trifle throatily. "There'll be plenty of chance for you to do more of that sweetie, but I want you naked right now" She stepped back as with a groan I rolled off the bed and to my feet, my fingers working at the buttons of the trousers, while Brenda turned and walked out of the room.

By the time I had managed to pull my boots and trousers off, she was back, the strap-on tight around her hips. I licked my lips at the sight, knowing that it was my turn. I was about to say something when I noticed she had the cuffs swinging from a finger and was holding the riding crop in her other hand. Swallowing suddenly, I looked up to see evil mischief dancing in her eyes.

"Oh and Sharon, I think we'll give these lovely cuffs a real workout. Turn around and put your hands behind your back" A rush of heat ran through me and I bit my lip to hold in a moan as Brenda sauntered towards me, smirking. "I think you need a few lessons in being a mistress, you're far too sweet and lovely to be believable just yet"

I took in the vision in front of me and I couldn't help it, I moaned.

"Oh god" Brenda just grinned.

"Just mistress will do for tonight"


	92. Chapter 92

The wonderful characters of 'Rizzoli and Isles', 'The Closer' and 'Law and Order:SVU' belong to their respective rights holders, no infringement is intended, but as always, thanks for letting us have our way with them, if only for a moment.

A quick thanks to Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander, Sedgwick, Mary McDonnell, Mariska Hargitay and Stephanie March for the warmth and depth you bring to the portrayals of our favourite crime fighters.

**A New York State of Mind**

Natalie's viewpoint

I'd been really curious to meet Alexandra and Olivia; Maura and Jane had told us so much about them, but I really wanted to meet them and now we were having our chance. I'd be lying if I didn't admit I was nervous, they were important to Jane and Maura and that meant a lot to me, that we hit it off, though Ana kept telling me I was being silly and that it'd be fine.

Alex had arrived on Wednesday night for her conference, with Olivia arriving on Thursday night after arranging to get Friday off from the NYPD. We'd arranged to have them over for a get to know you Friday night dinner; Ana had taken the afternoon off to go shopping for ingredients and get a head start on cooking, she was doing another of her culinary wonders, an Asian banquet that had me drooling the moment I'd walked through the door, the aroma's wafting through the place were amazing.

I'd tried to learn to cook like her, I really had, but for all that I could juggle a dozen appointments, briefings, interviews and speeches in my head at any one time seamlessly, I just couldn't wrap my head around the timings and sequences of good food cooking the way Ana could. Over the years lord knows I'd tried, Ana did it as easily as breathing, but it'd proved beyond me.

After a few culinary disasters we'd finally agreed that this was one area where we really couldn't share the load, so I'd pretty much been confined to simple foods, usually one step things like toasted sandwiches, salads and the like, it also meant I did most of the cleaning up afterwards but I thought it was a fair trade.

Fortunately, our agreement meant that we both got to eat really well, Ana's cooking was great and I always enjoyed whatever she made, when she went all out like this afternoon it was always amazing.

After a quick catch-up make out session with Ana in the kitchen, cut short when she tossed me out to get back to cooking, I grabbed a shower before changing into a polo shirt, ballet flats and jeans, racing around the place giving it a quick tidy and making sure we had enough to drink in the fridge, finishing just as the doorbell rang.

Alex Cabot was quite frankly stunning; the pictures I'd seen had her with shoulder length straight hair and didn't do the reality justice. Her hair was longer, flowing blonde layers down to her shoulder blades, the dark blue designer slacks and white cashmere pullover highlighting her slender figure, she was almost as tall and Jane and I, taller than Olivia, which surprised me.

Looking at her, I decided then and there that no matter how good a lawyer she was and she was apparently a very good one, her appearance in the court would be devastating for the defence. I could easily imagine her captivating the jury with her presence and a toss of the hair.

She moved with casual, natural grace and poise, the sort of thing that usually involved the right upbringing or lots of time practicing under the eye of a coach, in Alex's case it was definitely the upbringing I thought, as I gave her a hug and a peck on the cheek.

Olivia was nothing like Alex, where Alex was pale and delicate and slim and almost fey, Olivia was tanned and strong and curvaceous and powerful; I could see a lot of similarities between her and Jane, despite the external differences.

Her hair was back to being shorter than the pictures I'd seen and she moved with the sort of unconscious presence that I'd come to associate with strong, confident people who'd survived the worst life could throw at them, Ana had it from her time in war zones, Jane and Olivia had developed it surviving a life policing the streets, in their own way war zones too.

Where Alex's voice carried the precise diction of a classical education, similar to Maura's, Olivia's carried hints of her New York upbringing, less educated, more grounded. The black jeans and grey loose knit sweater she was wearing suited her well, having a casual, comfortable look.

As I looked back at Alex after giving Olivia a hug I found myself being appraised by a piercing set of blue eyes, Alex was watching me, curiosity visible in her eyes. I realised she'd certainly heard about us and was as curious about us as we were about them. I smiled, the thought made me a little less nervous about the evening as I turned and welcomed Jane and Maura, before leading them into the lounge room where Ana wandered in from the kitchen, with hugs all round.

Jane managed the introductions as I got everyone drinks, handing Jane a beer in the bottle and Maura a crisp white, Alex had the same and Jane told me to crack open another beer for Olivia. Handing the beer bottle over I got a cheeky grin and a salute, making me smile. Alex looked around.

"What's for dinner, it smells wonderful?" Ana smiled and shrugged, she was a good cook but often felt a bit self-conscious about it.

"Just some Asian, I hope you like it" Olivia made a production of licking her lips.

"Mmm, if it tastes half as good as it smells it'll be amazing" Jane grinned.

"Ana's cooking's the main reason Nat keeps her round" I had to laugh at that, throwing my arm around Ana's shoulder and pulling her close.

"One of them yes, but it's not the primary one" I planted a kiss on her cheek while Maura rolled her eyes at the teasing and smiled at Ana.

"Anastasia, how can I help?" Ana laughed; both Maura and Ana were great cooks, always swapping recipes, much to Jane's and my benefit.

"It's almost ready, but you can help me get ready to dish up" Maura happily followed Ana into the kitchen as we got settled in couches. The next ten minutes were filled with getting to know you small talk, the trip, the conference, what they wanted to do in LA this weekend, before Maura called us to the table, where an entrée of San Choi Bau got us started.

Over the next 30 minutes we happily ate everything that was put in front of us, it was all delicious, Salt and Pepper Calamari, Peking duck served with steamed vegies, Pad Thai with steamed fish fillets, Mongolian Crab with Singapore noodles and finally fried ice cream in tempura batter. Much as I'd hoped, the meal was a fantastic ice breaker; we'd swapped stories about food and travel and places we'd eaten, laughing happily.

By the time it was finished we were all sitting there, pretty much full to bursting as Alex cocked an eye at me.

"Does Ana always cook like this?" I smiled, glancing at Ana where she was sitting at the far end of the table, a happy smile on her face. She loved it when everyone enjoyed her cooking; she'd told me it makes all the effort worthwhile to see people enjoying the results.

"No thank god, otherwise I'd be the size of a house. Do you cook?" She rolled her eyes as Olivia chuckled.

"Not much, though I'm a wiz at finding good places that deliver, Liv's not much of a cook either, so we eat too much take out" Olivia nodded.

"We have to spend lots of time in the gym working off the pounds" I smiled, both of them were in, quite frankly, excellent shape, they both looked good. I'd noticed that they were close, constant little touches and shoulder bumps as they'd sat together, they were another couple that had a connection, it was nice to see.

I looked around the table and smiled.

"Division of labour time, Ana cooked, so I wash up. I know there's a Seahawk - Patriots game on tonight so we'll lose Jane and Ana for the next few hours. Jane tells me you're a football fan Olivia?" She smiled easily.

"Please, call me Liv and yes, Giants all the way" That got eye rolls from both Jane and Ana and a mock-annoyed glare in return from Liv. "What?" They both just shook their heads at her.

"Fine, you might as well join them watching the game, Maura and I will do the dishes, Alex, you can stay here and watch football…" I mock shuddered. "…or you can come and chat while we do the dishes" Alex and Liv both protested, volunteering to help. "Afraid not; one, you're our guests so you get to relax, not clean up. Second, there's not that much room in our kitchen for more than a couple of people"

In the end Alex wandered in to chat to Maura and me as we cleaned up, the others settling down to watch the game. I'd kinda planned it that way so we could talk, though conversation was a little quiet and stilted at first, especially compared to the ease we'd had during dinner. I wasn't sure what was going on, until Maura stepped in.

"Alex, whatever is the matter, you are not your usual self at all tonight" I looked between them, as Alex's eyes flicked to me. That was my cue to leave them in peace.

"I'll be back in a bit, I'll leave you two to chat" Alex looked up at me, uncertainty in her eyes, then shook her head.

"No!" She paused, looking embarrassed. "I'm sorry, please stay" I nodded and leaned back against the bench top, giving her time to speak.

"It's not you, it's me. I'm sorry if I've not been good company tonight" Maura and I both smiled.

"Nonsense Alex, you are always wonderful company" I nodded.

"Yeah, it's great to finally meet you both. Maura and Jane have told us so many good things about you" She nodded.

"Maura has told us a lot about you both as well, you've obviously been good friends since they got arrived" I nodded.

"It's them who've been great friends, we're very lucky to have them here" Alex nodded slowly.

"I know, we love them both, it's just, well, we've been looking forward to seeing them so much and it's been wonderful but…" Her voice dropped, soft and sad. "…well, I really miss them" I nodded as Maura moved to Alex and wrapped her in a hug.

"I miss you too Alex, I miss you both so much, Jane does as well" Alex nodded, not speaking. I stood there, letting them be. Finally Alex looked up.

"It's just that I feel that we're losing you. When you were in Boston we knew we'd see each other every month, we'd spend the week before emailing and on Skype back and forward, working out what we were going to do when we got to Boston or you came up to us. Now you're on the other side of the country and I miss you" I nodded, I know what she meant, Ana and I loved them both, they were our best friends too, same as they were for Alex and Liv.

"I know what you mean Alex, I really do. I love planning stuff with Maura, nights out, shopping, dinner, things we can do together, it's been wonderful having them here. I'm really not looking forward to their secondment ending, it's going to be hard, seeing them go back to Boston in a couple of months" I shrugged. "But at least I'll know that they have wonderful friends waiting for them when they get back"

Alex's eyes dropped and I could see I'd said something wrong, she was struggling.

"What's wrong? Alex, what's wrong?" Maura looked up to me, a sad expression on her face.

"Jane and I told Alex and Olivia earlier this evening that we are going to let Brenda know that we would like to take up her offer to relocate out to LA permanently" '_Oh_'. Now I knew what was wrong, why Alex was upset.

I completely understood how Alex was feeling; I hadn't been exaggerating about not looking forward to them leaving. I'd been dreading their departure, afraid I'd be lost without them as a central part of our lives. They were our best friends and we loved them, but Alex and Liv obviously felt the same way, for a moment I could feel my heart break, it must be so hard for them, to lose someone they cared about so much to the far side of the country.

I wondered if she resented Ana and I, if she felt that we had replaced them as Jane and Maura's BFFs, no matter how much I knew it was silly. Both Jane and Maura had been so looking forward to their visit, Maura had been almost giddy the last two days before Alex arrived; they were as much if not more a part of their lives as we were.

"I feel like I've lost them" She stifled a sniff, a strong woman trying not to show how much this had got to her.

"Oh honey" Without thinking I took three steps over and wrapped my arms around Alex, realising as I did that she was thinner than I'd first thought without that presence she wore like a suit of armour. "I had no idea, I'm sorry" She stood stiffly for a second, before relaxing, as I just held her.

"You've not lost them; you have a connection that we don't, that we'll never have. You were there for Maura and she was there for you when you both decided to pursue Liv and Jane. You were there when you both took the step past friendship and into love with them. We could never replace that..." I paused until she looked at me. "…and we wouldn't want to" Alex looked down, her voice soft.

"I'm sorry; you must think me a fool" I shook my head vehemently.

"God no, in other circumstances I'd be the one in your shoes. We'd be visiting Jane and Maura in Boston, meeting you and Liv and I'd be a much worse mess than you. I don't think I'd be as strong as you" She shook her head as I slowly let her go and took a step back.

"I don't feel very strong, not right now" I glanced at Maura for help.

"Alexandra, you have survived so much, the daily stress of your work, the attempt on your life, being forced into witness protection, your time in Africa, they would have overwhelmed most people, but you emerged stronger for it" Alex looked up and shrugged.

"Look at me, I stand in front of jury's and convince them to send people to prison for the rest of their lives. I get yelled at by judges and it's all part of the job, but here I'm carrying on like a schoolgirl" She wiped at her eyes suddenly. "Damn it"

I looked to Maura for a moment, then back at Alex.

"Alex" I waited until she looked up. "Alex, neither of us could possibly think anything less of you. You're strong enough to let others see that you're not ok, that takes real strength, especially in front of a stranger" Maura nodded.

"Alex, I respected the strong District Attorney I met, but I love the Alex Cabot I know. You are hurting, I understand that. In a way I wish I had not told you, it has made you sad and that hurts me terribly, that I was responsible for this" She walked over to Alex and put her hands on her shoulders, Maura's voice was low and soft, full of care.

"I wanted to tell you face to face, not via an email or a phone call or on Skype, you deserved to hear it from me personally" Alex nodded slowly, her face full of sadness.

"I know and I know why you left Boston, I'm just being selfish" I shook my head.

"There's nothing selfish about it Alex. I understand that, Maura's told me that you've been like a sister to her" At that Alex's head came up, turning to Maura, surprise written across her face. "It'd be hard to feel that slip further away" Maura nodded.

"It's true Alexandra, I grew up alone; I have been alone for most of my life. It was not until Jane came into my life that I truly understood friendship and love. Meeting you a year ago, well since then you have become so close to me, you're the sister I never had but always wanted" I saw Alex's eyes open wide, tears starting to slip down her cheeks. Maura just stepped up and pulled her into a hug, I could see her eyes were full of tears as well. She spoke, her voice full of tears.

"Now, well I could not contemplate not having you in my life. We may be further apart, but you will always have a place in my heart that is yours alone"

I stood there, watching as they cried onto each other's shoulders, feeling a little embarrassed, it felt like I was intruding into a very private moment. I decided to leave them for a while and turned to sneak out of the kitchen when Maura's voice called to me.

"Natalie, where are you going?" I shrugged, looking back.

"I thought I'd give you some time" She shook her head and took a small step apart from Alex.

"Please don't" She reached out a hand for me. "Please?" When I hesitated she asked again. "Please, Natalie?" I swallowed and walked over to where they stood. Maura took my hand, holding Alex's in the other.

"Natalie, you are right. Alexandra is the sister that I never had. I treasure her, for supporting me when I sought out the one thing I wanted more than anything in the world, for being there for me, for allowing me to be her friend. She is everything I could ever imagine a sister could be" She smiled at Alex, getting a small smile in return, before they fell into hug. I smiled, seeing Maura so happy just made me feel good. Finally they pulled apart and stood there, arms around each other's waists, as she looked at me.

"But now I feel very blessed, because I feel I have not one but two sisters, I was so lucky to find Alex, to have someone so wonderful in my life. Now, here in Los Angeles, l have managed to find someone else as wonderful as her" She pulled me into a one armed hug, as I felt my eyes start stinging. "It is rare to find someone so special in your life, I have been so incredibly fortunate to do it not once, but twice" I swallowed past a huge lump in my throat, as I felt the tears started running.

Without thinking I pulled her tight, before reaching out and wrapping my other arm around Alex, pulling her in close, all three of us standing there hugging and crying our eyes out like idiots. I heard a sound and looked up to see Olivia standing there, but she caught my eye and nodded, backing out, leaving me grateful for her tact.

Finally we stood there for a moment, a combination of shy smiles and mild embarrassment, as we pulled ourselves together. I wiped at my eyes for a moment, before looking at them both.

"Damn, we're all a mess" I could see the tracks of mascara and makeup on both of them. "I pointed to the door leading to our bedroom. "Why don't you both use the bedroom's en-suite to freshen up? You can use anything in the top two drawers of the vanity, there should be no end of wipes, brushes, and make up there" Alex and Maura exchanged a glance before Alex smiled.

"Are we that bad" I smiled gently and nodded.

"How bad's mine" Maura shook her head.

"Not that bad"

"I didn't have much makeup on, I'd had a shower just before you guys arrived, so less to make a mess of" I waved towards the door. "Go on and get cleaned up, I'll play beer wench for the girls while you're busy" Alex raised her eyebrow.

"Are you sure?" I smiled.

"Best way to keep them glued to the game, see you when you get back" They nodded and exited, as I grabbed three fresh beers and wandered out to the lounge room, checking my face in a mirror in the hall. I decided I could pass muster and walked in during an ad break as the girls discussed work, dispensing beers to raucous approval.

As I handed Liv hers she looked up, a question evident in her eyes. I just nodded, before giving her a wink and a smile, she nodded once and smiled, obviously happy to leave things be just at the moment.

Ana took one look at me and raised an eyebrow, she could tell I'd been crying, but at my slight shake of the head she let it be, we could talk later.

I smiled and walked back out to the kitchen, where I waited, hoping we could put things to right. A couple of minutes later Maura and Alex were back, all cleaned up and looking lovely. Alex smiled.

"Nice collection Nat, you have an entire makeup store in there" I shrugged.

"I worked the cosmetic department at the Nordstrom's down the road in Denver during summer holidays. I learnt make up there and then when I worked in television, you have to learn all over again, what works in real life doesn't work on television" I finished pouring fresh wines for all of us as Maura looked at me.

"Oh really, why ever not?' I handed the drinks over with a smile.

"The studio lights wash you out using normal make up, you look like an albino, so you have to cake it on and really overdo it to get any sort of colour in your face. Off camera you look like a clown, its hideous" Alex frowned.

"I had no idea" I shrugged.

"If you have to go on television, insist that you have your makeup done by the same person doing the host or anchor, they always have the best person doing it" I smiled. "Or you could ask me, I'd do it for you" They both chuckled, which was the whole idea.

"C'mon, let's head out to the balcony, the view's nothing great but it's better than the kitchen" I led them down the hall and through our bedroom out onto the balcony.

There was a three-seat swing seat out there where Ana and I would lounge on lazy evenings, just enjoying the view and each other. We'd last used it a couple of nights ago, when she'd shamelessly seduced me out here after dark. I didn't think I'd share that particular story with either of them; they didn't need to know the gory details.

We got settled, with Alex sandwiched between Maura and me, looking out at the night lights of the suburbs of Los Angeles. We were quiet for a while before Alex finally spoke.

"I'm really sorry about earlier, I didn't mean to, well…" Maura interrupted.

"Alex you did nothing wrong" I nodded, looking out at the night for a moment.

"Hey, like I said, I wouldn't handle it as well as you are" Alex sat quietly there for a moment. I looked across at her from the corner of my eye; time to try and lighten the mood.

"Y'know, this is kinda good" Maura and Alex both turned their heads to look at me before Maura spoke.

"What is?"

"if we're your sisters, figuratively speaking, I'm younger than you, which is cool, cause I got used to being the big sister to Lauren, it'd be nice to have a big sister to complain to when Ana's done something dumb that's pissing me off" They laughed for a moment, before Alex spoke.

"You don't have to be a sister for that, we'll listen. God knows Liv occasionally does stupid things that get to me" Maura nodded.

"I love Jane, but there are times she does something foolish that puts her at risk, I get so angry when she does" It was my turn to laugh, as Alex spoke.

"Then we're agreed that we're there to listen when we need a sympathetic ear. I nodded.

"Absolutely" Maura looked at me and nodded as well.

"Of course" We shared a smile, before we sat back and gazed into the darkness, someone started the seat gently swinging; a gentle movement that was soothing.

"Alex, Jane and Maura may be here in LA, rather than Boston, but it's only a five to six hour flight time rather than a three to four hour drive. Just because they're further away doesn't mean you can't see them or they can't see you" She nodded.

"I know, it just feels further away. Stupid I know" I shrugged.

"You make time for what's important" Maura turned to look at Alex.

"Alex, do you remember the afternoon we decided to pursue Jane and Olivia?" Alex nodded.

"Of course"

"Do you recall what you said to me when I was unsure we would be able to arrange a private table at that restaurant for that evening?" Alex's eyes narrowed, she was obviously trying to remember. Finally she shook her head.

"No, not exactly"

"You told me that I was an Isles, you were a Cabot and would we really let anything stand between us and what we really, really wanted" Alex slowly nodded.

"I remember now" Maura smiled.

"This is no different, we really want to remain close to you and I know you wish to as well, therefore I refuse to allow some additional distance to keep us apart" Alex looked back at Maura and nodded decisively.

"So do I, we may be further apart but that's no reason not to continue to see each other as often as we can" I smiled, it felt like real progress.

"Besides, it means we get to see you too, plus you get to play tourist in one of the country's biggest tourist cities. From what you said over dinner LA's not really a place either of you have explored" Alex shook her head.

"No, I've been here once before for another conference a few years back, apart from that, no" I smiled.

"Then let the Rizzoli-Isles and Romanov-Dearing tourist agency guide you around the city, I'm sure we can show you the highlights and low dives of the city" Alex smiled happily for a moment.

"That'd be good, the low dives sound interesting too; tell me about this place we're going to tomorrow night?" Maura and I laughed, before Maura started.

"Blush is a women's only nightclub, we have been there several times since we arrived, we enjoy dancing there" I grinned.

"Not to mention it has some interesting memories, it's where we took two of our friends for their first night together" Alex looked from me to Maura and back again.

"Is this the Brenda and Sharon I've heard so much about?" We both laughed before I nodded.

"The same, we were too busy having fun dancing and watching them dance around each other that I forgot to take any photo's, which reminds me, I have to get some shots tomorrow night. It's the club's Little Black Dress night so it should be fun" Alex smiled.

"Maura was very insistent that we pack the same little black dresses we wore that night that we all went out to dinner for the first time" I laughed happily.

"I've heard a lot about that night, I'm looking forward to a repeat performance" Maura and Alex looked at each other and smiled, obviously remembering that night. Finally Maura spoke.

"Blush really is a lot of fun, nice without being too intense" I grinned.

"Nothing like The Intersection, has Maura told you about that one?" Alex nodded.

"I saw the photos"

"We'll take you there the next time you're out; it gives us another opportunity to dress up and party hard" At my words Alex burst out laughing, finally she subsided enough to speak.

"Does that include the after party? Maura told us about your little wager" I felt my cheeks tingle at the memory of that night, making Alex laugh all over again. Maura just lifted an eyebrow at her.

"Of course it does, that is if you're up for it?" Alex's chuckle was warm and easy as she looked from Alex to me and back again before finally nodding.

"I'm in if you're both in" Maura looked to me and I smiled.

"We're in" Maura nodded.

"Then it is agreed" Alex nodded and held out her hand to Maura.

"May the best woman win" They shook on it, before she turned to me and held her hand out. I shook it and smiled.

"Oh we will" That got me a grin and a poke in the ribs, as the last of the tension we'd been carrying dissipated, leaving things a lot more relaxed. We chatted about all sorts of things until we finished our wine, it must have been more than an hour. Finally Maura held up her empty glass and smiled.

"Perhaps we should look in on the others, see what they are up to?" I nodded.

"Yeah, though I'm sure they're wrapped up in the game" Alex smiled and levered herself up off the seat.

"Maybe, but I'm sure we can convince them to watch it on cable later, if we offer them something more interesting to do" I smiled as I stood.

"I like where you're going with this Alex" Maura frowned.

"If the game is a good one, they may take some convincing" Alex just laughed and led us back through the apartment.

"I'm a lawyer, that's what I do" We wandered in to find it was half time.

"How's the game" Jane and Ana both frowned at Alex's question before Liv shrugged.

"Close, the Patriots are ahead" I grinned.

"Then in that case, you won't mind if I help take your mind off it will you Tsarina?" Ana looked up at me as I saw Alex slide onto the lounge and into Liv's lap; kissing her soundly.

"What do you mean" I grinned as I unceremoniously knelt on the lounge, throwing the other knee over her leg and settling in her lap, linking my arms around her neck and leaning in for a kiss.

"You're a smart girl, I'm sure you'll work it out" I felt the smile she was trying to hold in turn up the corners of her mouth under our kiss, as Maura sat down next to Jane and leaned in for a kiss as well. Jane pulled away for a moment, peering suspiciously at Maura.

"What's this?" Maura just smiled, before snuggling in close and kissing Jane, as Alex laughed, looking over from where she was snuggled into Liv's arms.

"Half time entertainment"


	93. Chapter 93

This is a work of fiction, no infringement of the rights of the creators is intended. Thanks for letting us play with them.

A huge vote of thanks to Mariska Hargitay and Stephanie March for providing us with one of the longest slow motion subtextual torments on network tv, when we all know Cabot and Benson need to be together.

**LA Women**

Olivia's viewpoint

The flight back to New York was almost six hours long, we'd lose a few hours extra because of the time zones and we'd be getting into JFK way too early tomorrow morning. I knew should be trying to some sleep the way Alex was, curled up in her seat next to me; thank god for the wide seats in business class.

I'd never travelled business or first class before I became Alex's partner but I was so glad she insisted on paying for the upgrade, the extra room was a godsend, especially if it meant she got a good sleep.

I should be sleeping but I'd never been able to easily sleep on a plane, something not even the extra space could change. Besides my mind was too active so I'd ordered a drink and sat there in the darkened cabin and relived the last few days.

Sitting there, smiling at Alex where she was facing me asleep, four and a half hours flight time before we got into New York and we were back at work, I had to conclude that the weekend was worth all the hassles.

The trip out to Los Angeles had been all we could have hoped for; we'd reconnected with Jane and Maura, something we'd really needed to do after too long apart.

They were our closest friends, they knew us like no one else, they'd been there when Alex and I had finally stepped over the threshold from friends to lovers, consummating our most heartfelt desires. Turns out we'd both wanted it, but were afraid of damaging what we had, of putting our friendship at risk.

They'd been the same as well but somehow together, well with a big push from Alex and Maura, we'd been forced to face our fears and see what we had to live for, now I'd never been happier, loving the woman of my dreams. Jane was equally happy; she'd told me that her life had never been as good, as happy as it was now.

The trip out to LA had been something we'd needed to do, it was good to see that we'd still had that connection, that we were still so comfortable with them both and they felt the same way. They were our best friends, in a deeper and more important way than even the guys at SVU were for me or the other DA's were for Alex. They were workmates and colleagues and partners, Jane and Maura were our most important, deepest friends.

We'd also had the chance to meet their friends Ana and Nat who'd been all we'd been led to expect, they were happy and fun and very welcoming, really good company.

Alex had been a bit apprehensive about meeting them, especially after we learnt that Jane and Maura were planning on relocating to LA permanently, I'd been afraid that'd put a damper on the rest of weekend but Alex had apparently connected to Natalie and her bond with Maura was as strong as ever.

She told me later that the three of them had agreed that they were not going to let distance stand between us, that we'd continue to see each other regularly; it was just that we would be flying rather than driving. I didn't care; it meant Alex was happy and we'd see our friends regularly, if it meant we flew, then so what? We'd fly.

In fact by the end of the weekend Alex had been as thick as thieves with Natalie, who was such a warm and open, person that you just enjoyed having her around, life with her was never dull. I smiled to myself, remembering how she'd happily sat in my lap at one point during Friday night's 'half time entertainment'.

I'd asked her what exactly she thought was doing and she'd just laughed and told me she was taking me for a test drive, just in case she ever got sick of Ana. I'd wondered aloud what Alex might think of that, only to be told that sisters shared everything and as all three blondes were now honorary sisters, that applied to clothes, makeup and girlfriends.

I'd been about to protest when Alex walked up and handed me a drink, Natalie had gone to stand up but Alex had just smiled and told her to stay there, Jane was equally comfortable and before I could pick my jaw up she'd happily sat in Jane's lap, laughing at my expression. Maura had been no better, ending up cuddling with Anastasia for a while, from the looks on Jane and Ana's face I got the impression that the girl's teasing was nothing new.

By the end of the night I'd gotten used to how close and uninhibited Natalie was, I'd been surprised though at seeing Maura like that too, she was a lot happier and relaxed than she had been back in Boston, but I found myself liking her this way.

The night had finished well after midnight, we'd never got back to the game which I guessed had been their intention, but the time had flown, full of laughter and happiness and I'd been sad to see it end, as had Alex. Her blues had been well and truly chased away, replaced by the happy and outgoing Alex I loved.

We'd spent Saturday out at Disneyland with Jane and Maura, just being tourists and big kids, Alex and Maura had behaved just as they had been when we'd got together back before their move, laughing and carrying on like they didn't have a care in the world, while Jane and I'd a great time just enjoying the day and their happiness.

That night we'd gone out clubbing with them, meeting up with Ana and Nat and Jane's boss Brenda and her girlfriend, who'd been a real surprise.

Brenda Leigh Johnson and Sharon Raydor were nothing like I expected, I'd looked them up on the LAPD website before the trip, seeing a pair of women in dress uniform, hair in tight buns, stern and unapproachable, in the flesh they were nothing like that, dressed in the evening's requisite little black dresses they were gorgeous, fun and quite obviously newly together, they were so happily wrapped up in each other that I found myself smiling at them both a lot.

They reminded me of Alex and I in the first few months after we'd finally got together, when we couldn't get enough of each other, spending as much time together as we could. To be honest we were still like that, especially if we'd been apart for more than a night, after a decade of missed opportunities and wasted time, we wanted to make the most of every second we could.

We'd headed off to dinner at a nice Greek restaurant followed by a long night of fun and dancing at a gay club called Blush where we'd had a great time, dancing with each other's partners before wrapping up well after one in the morning.

Brenda and Sharon had begged off just after midnight, claiming that they were too old to stay up till all hours dancing. The looks on everyone else's face had reflected my skepticism, they couldn't wait to get to bed alright, but sleep was the furthest thing from their minds. They really couldn't keep away from each other.

Remembering what Alex and I had been like when we'd first got together I was more than happy to bet the sex was incredible. I was sure that being out with us was fun, but being together alone was even better. We'd just laughed and teased the hell out of them before they'd left, exchanging hugs all round.

We got home around two and even then we couldn't sleep, Natalie, Maura and Alex had apparently decided that they would spend the last hour in the club dancing as maddeningly sexy and close as possible, driving us half crazy with the teasing.

By the time first Natalie then Maura had finished teasing the shit out of me on the dance floor, I was a mess and I could tell both Jane and Ana were in no better state, I defy anyone to have those three incredibly sexy blondes dancing up against you, bodies teasing, hair flying, curves touching you and remain calm.

When Alex had finally got back to me after teasing Jane and Anastasia I was in an almost frantic state of arousal, not helped by the fact that she was equally worked up, I could see the dark wildness in her eyes that told me we weren't getting much sleep that night.

A heavy make out session in the cab back to their place only kept the motors running, we said a hasty goodnight to Jane and Maura and practically dragged each other to bed, trying to ignore the laughter and teasing from them, mind you they weren't much better, all wandering hands and hot kisses, I knew they weren't going to be in any fit state early tomorrow, just like us.

I finally dragged myself awake at close to ten in the morning, to find a sleeping Alex wrapped possessively around me, her head on my shoulder, arm around my chest and leg wrapped over mine, the sense of joy I felt when I awoke with her making me smile happily.

Those mornings when I woke up first I got to spend some time just looking at her, wondering what I'd done in a previous life to deserve the blonde angel snuggled up against me. Alex had been an inconceivable dream for so long that when we'd finally got together I kept feeling the need to pinch myself, to prove that it was real, not some impossible fantasy.

It wasn't a fantasy though, it was so much better, I loved a beautiful, smart, generous and caring woman and she loved me, life couldn't get any better. Well, actually it could. Hidden in a box of my old photos and memorabilia sitting at the very back of the highest shelf in our hall cupboard was a small box that contained an engagement ring, one that I fully intended to place on a long, elegant finger sometime soon, I just had to find the right time and place.

Jane had eventually banged on the door, dragging us awake and out of bed so we could meet up with Ana and Nat down at Rodeo Drive. Begging off from accompanying them shopping, Jane, Ana and I went off and found a decent bar where we'd played pool and darts and drank beers while watching sports and swapping stories, while the three blondes had shopped their way down Rodeo Drive.

We caught up a few hours later over lunch, before they dragged us off to 'get our opinion' at some boutique. It turned out to be a lingerie shop called Agent Provocateur, at which point I'd wanted to back out, but no such luck; Alex had turned to me, hit me with the big blue eyes and the sad look and asked me to stay; she 'really needed' my help.

Of course I'd stayed, I never could say no to the woman, something she used to her advantage from time to time, one of them being now. So I'd found myself walking in, surrounded by more satin, silk and lace than I was ever going to be comfortable with.

For the next hour Alex had paraded in front of me, wearing no end of outfits that lived up to the shops name, by the end of it I was feeling more than a bit provoked myself, especially when Alex had wrapped up her little show in something called the Mercy corset, which was showing me damned little mercy, all black lace and silk.

I may not really be into wearing lingerie, it's not really something I was comfortable in, not after more than a decade dealing with sex crimes, but on Alex, well I was all in favour of that.

She had a great body, tall and slender and one that never failed to turn me on, seeing it that erotically packaged, well I was all for bundling her back home for a private showing. She'd just laughed and suggested that we could have a private party when we got back to New York.

The rest of the afternoon had passed quietly; we'd had a quiet seafood dinner down by the water at Santa Monica, watching the sun set in the Pacific, bringing a quiet end to a really great weekend.

Ana and Nat had hugged us both, Natalie and Alex both getting a bit teary as they said their goodbyes, they'd both taken the whole 'sisters' thing seriously, it was obvious that they'd built a rapport in a short space of time, together with Maura they really were like three peas in a pod, thick as thieves, it was something I really loved seeing. Maura and now Natalie made Alex happy, I couldn't ask for anything more than that.

I'd got a hug from Ana, during which she'd whispered into my ear, something about seeing you sooner than you think. I'd given her a look but she'd just smiled and winked.

They'd taken their leave and together with Maura and Jane we'd made our way out to LAX for the flight home, with them sitting with us in the lounge until our flight was called.

At one point, while Alex and Maura had been off getting some freshly squeezed juices, Jane had leaned in and asked what we were planning for New Year's Eve. I'd shrugged and told her that honestly we hadn't planned anything. Jane had just looked around carefully, making sure that the girls were out of earshot, before asking me to try and get the time off, Maura wanted to celebrate New Year's Eve with friends and that the night wouldn't be the same without us.

I'd told her I'd do what I could and she'd just nodded, before looking around again. Then she'd leaned in and told me that the night was going to be really important and we really needed to be there. I'd looked back at her and given her my best sceptical look, but she'd refused to say anything more.

I'd had my suspicions, but the girl's return had stopped me hassling Jane. If what I suspected was going to happen, there was no way we were going to miss it, besides, I'd never hear the end of it from Jane, or Alex.

Eventually our flight had been called and we'd sadly left them there in the lounge, making our way out to the boarding gate.

I drained the last of my drink as I felt exhaustion finally tugging at me, so I lowered the seat back and settled down to get some sleep, the last thing I saw before sleep finally claimed me was Alex's face, relaxed and content.

Tomorrow was going to be a shit, facing lots of work on not enough sleep, but seeing that look on Alex's face? Totally worth it.


	94. Chapter 94

**Late night loneliness**

The call on her cell was what dragged me out of a deep sleep, that and her reluctantly moving away from me, her voice thick with sleep as she took the call.

It was work of course, who else calls at 2.45 in the morning?

Getting them to text the address, she ended the call and dropped the phone on the dresser, before moving back to the bed. I reluctantly opened my eyes as she knelt next to me, the mattress dipping as she leaned in to kiss me.

"Sorry love, it's work, I have to go" I wasn't happy, but that was life, it was what we did, though it didn't stop me from whining a little as she went to move away.

"Don't go" I heard a gentle chuckle.

"Believe me, I don't want to" I tried to wrap my arms around her in the dark, but she was too quick, stepping away before I could pull her back to me. "Uh ah, if I let you do that, I'll never get out of here" I pouted at the thought of her leaving me.

"Mmm, let me make it worth your while" She just chuckled as she stepped away from the bed.

"Believe me, I know, but…" I rolled over in the bed, into the area she'd just left, feeling the warmth of the sheets where her body had been. As I watched she turned on the lights in the en-suite bathroom, giving enough light to get dressed. I frowned.

"You don't want me there?" She turned, allowing me to see her partly nude silhouette in the light spilling from the bathroom, making me smile gently.

"No, it's just a routine call out, stay in bed and go back to sleep, I'll be back when I can" I nodded slowly, still partly asleep.

The tone from her cell announced the arrival of a text with the address, an unwelcome reminder of the world outside this room, crime and death and pain, something far removed from the love and happiness and tenderness we'd shared only a few hours ago here in this bed.

I watched as she finished getting dressed, pants because it was December after all and contrary to what the LA tourist people tell you; it does get cold out here, especially at night.

I felt a little anxiety; I always did when she headed out. A little fear that she might not come home, that something terrible might happen. I always calmed my fears by telling myself that she would be at a crime scene, surrounded by cops, that it would be safe, just about the last place on earth a criminal would want to be found.

Still I worried, that's what love did, it made you worry, over even the smallest of things.

Dressed, she disappeared into the en-suite where I could hear her finish getting ready. Shortly afterwards she reappeared in the doorway, before the room was plunged into darkness again as she turned the lights off.

I felt the bed move again as she leaned over, my nose filling with her unique scent, making me smile and instinctively turn my face towards her as she leaned in and kissed me softly. I reached my head up towards her, seeking to deepen the kiss, to feel her, all of her, to convey my love in a kiss, something I always did when she was called away from me.

"Be careful" I felt the breath on my face as she spoke, her lips close to mine.

"Always, see you soon"

"Hurry back" I felt the bed move as she stepped off it.

"I will" I could hear her footsteps as she left the room, followed by noises through the place as she grabbed keys on the way out. The closing of the front door, a gentle click as she carefully closed it as quietly as possible to not further awaken me, was a final reminder that she was gone.

I sighed, a sad sound in the dark as I felt her absence, the bed cooling without her beside me. I moved a bit, snagging the other pillow and pulling it to me, it carried her scent, a comforting presence now she was gone.

I unconsciously smiled as I buried my nose into the pillow and breathed her in, her scent reminding me of how we'd made love earlier tonight.

We'd been slow and loving and gentle, coming with a gentle rocking, each wrapped in the other's arms, slow teasing kisses and our names whispered in the dark, full of love and passion. I unconsciously smiled, I couldn't help it.

She'd given me her love, a gift without price, there had been times I'd thought I'd never find it, that I wouldn't find the one to fill me and make me whole, complete and loved, but here she was, filling me with her love.

I carried that love with me through the day, knowing that no matter how bad my day, she was there, closer than a caress, deep within my thoughts, knowing that I would see her soon, either there at work or at lunch or back at home, that she could banish the evil we saw every day and bring a smile to my face, just by being there.

She didn't have to do anything, just the tilt of her head as I walked in, as she leaned up for a kiss with a smile, the quiet intimacy of working together in the kitchen, washing up after dinner so we can go snuggle on the couch, everything she did made me content.

She often told me that I did the same for her, that just me being there made the rest of the world recede a bit, that when we were together there wasn't room for the ugly parts of our jobs to intrude.

Truth be told, recent times were some of the happiest times of my life, I loved a beautiful woman and somehow, in spite of all the odds, despite everything, my faults and flaws and failures, she loved me.

I needed her like the air I breathe; something she'd told me as well more than once, it was something that she had a hard time believing too. She'd told me two nights ago that she wondered what she'd done to be so lucky, to have someone so wonderful who wanted her the same way she wanted me, that needed her the same way she did me.

Needless to say, we hadn't had time to say much meaningful after that little conversation, we'd found so much more enjoyable things to do with our mouths. That was another thing that was amazing; we were more and more in synch as lovers despite all our time together. Each time we seemed to be more and more intuitive, we didn't need to say what we wanted, we instinctively seemed to know.

Often just a smirk, a touch, a smile or a gleam in her eyes was all I needed to see to know what she needed, sometime it was hard, rough and fast, filling the room with our screams, cries and entreaties, sometimes slow, soft and passionate, our tears of joy mingling as we came together amid soft gasps and moans and whispered words of love and care. Sex with her had always been wonderful, but it seemed to be getting better as time went on.

Every day I felt more and more that we were truly meant to be together, that we really were two halves of the same whole and that we'd embarked on a journey together, our formerly disparate lives now happily joined as one, bound together by silken chains of passion and hope and tenderness and care and love.

I lay there in our bed, her scent surrounding me, a pale substitute for her presence but all I had until we were together again. I missed her when she wasn't here, so much so that I'd taken to raiding her wardrobe for some of her clothes, more than once she'd found me wearing a sweatshirt or a tee or a sweater that was hers. The first time she'd caught me I'd justified it that I didn't have something to wear, or that I was cold or something, but she'd just arched an eyebrow and smiled at me, leaving me blushing as I realised she'd seen right through me.

Then she'd strolled over and wrapped me in her arms, holding me close while whispering in my ear, telling me that I looked good in her clothes and I could wear anything of hers I wanted, anything would look good on me. I smiled in the dark as I remembered her words and the teasing nibble to my earlobe that followed. A few days later I'd caught her washing the car wearing one of my tees, making me smile at the sight.

Sighing, I rolled over in the bed, unable to settle with her gone. My ability to sleep soundly alone had long ago vanished, about the time we'd started sleeping together, now I only slept properly when she was there with me, as we slept wrapped in each other, her familiar warmth a comfort no matter the temperature. I could kick off the covers on warm nights, but I couldn't do without her touch, her arms around me, my head on her shoulder as the heat of her body filled me with an inner peace, she was my safe harbour, in her arms nothing bad could happen.

It was when she was gone, when I wasn't with her, on nights like this, that my fears got full reign. I found myself wondering if she would be alright, that nothing bad would happen, sometimes I felt the need to ring her, just to put my foolish fears to rest, to hear her voice on the other end of the line. She never minded, though her voice carried her concern that I was awake, not getting enough sleep.

She cared so much, the thought alone was comforting, making me wonder what I'd done to deserve a woman like her, and what I'd do without her.

Tonight wasn't so bad, other nights I could imagine getting a call, demanding I race to the hospital or even worse, a knock on the door, opening it to find someone I knew standing there, a look of dreadful pain on her face as she told me something terrible had happened.

Those were the times I felt an empty horror open within me, the fear of losing her leaving me shaking and crying. The thought of being alone again, of no longer having a life built around her one so painful that the thought left me cold and numb, shivering in the face of my deepest fears and formless terrors.

I don't know how long I lay there, restlessly tossing and turning, unable to properly settle, drifting in and out of half-sleep until, with the first faint blush of dawn staring to tint the morning pink, I heard the welcome sound of a key in the front door. She made her way through the house, trying to be quiet but I was attuned for her return, straining to hear every little noise as she undressed before reaching the bedroom.

Finally she appeared in the door, clad only in a bra and panties, which were left on the dresser as she moved towards the bed. I rolled over and smiled at her, getting an apologetic half smile in return.

"Hi, did I wake you?" I shook my head.

"No, wasn't really sleeping, just wanted you home" The smile I got in return made me melt, she knew exactly what I was saying.

She slid onto the bed and rolled over to snuggle up against me, her lips seeking mine as we kissed, arms and legs wrapping around each other. She was home and everything was right in the world once more.

"Is everything ok?" I felt her nod against me.

"Tell you all about it later" I smiled as we fitted together on the bed, both of us tired. I felt sleep calling me, pulling me back under now that she was home safe. I didn't fight it; I knew she would be there when I woke, here with me, whole, real and safe.

My love was home, all was right in the world once more.


	95. Chapter 95

**A/N** This story is rated M for a reason, this chapter being one of them.

This chapter contains depictions of consenting adults doing what consenting adults do when they feel like it, so if sexual content isn't your thing, please skip the chapter and move on.

**Art and Addison**

Maura's viewpoint

We were out, taking some time to see a bit of the Los Angeles cultural scene. After a very late night out last night, we'd dragged Ana and Natalie out of the guest bedroom in time for brunch, before we all headed to a gallery for an Ansel Adams retrospective. Jane had rolled her eyes a bit at the mention of a gallery, but as soon as were inside I saw her eyes light up at the subject and soon she was as engrossed as we were.

Anastasia apparently was a keen photographer, so she was right in her element; I saw her chatting with one of the curators about techniques and smiled as I spotted Natalie strolling around closely examining each image. Jane had taken a call from her mother and I was starting to get a little worried when I heard a familiar voice behind me.

"Maura? My god Maura, it is you. What are you doing here?" I turned to see striking red hair and a very familiar face. My stomach flipped slightly.

"Addison, hello, how are you" She looked me up and down, smiling, before stepping in to give me a hug and a way too familiar kiss on the lips. She was dressed in a white dress with a striking blue pattern, matched with blue shoes and a matching clutch; she looked good, as usual.

"I'm fine darling, but I didn't know you were in LA, I'm almost hurt that you didn't call and let me know you were visiting" I paused for a moment, wondering what to tell her. Addison and I had a history, one which was now safely in the past. In respect of what we had shared, plus wishing to avoid an attack of hives or worse, I told her the truth.

"I came out here on a secondment to the Los Angeles Police Department as their Medical Examiner" She smiled, a little too happily.

"How long are you here my darling" I frowned slightly, sticking to the truth.

"The secondment was originally scheduled to be for six months" She raised one finely sculpted eyebrow.

"Now I am offended dear one, you didn't tell me you were going to be here, available, you should have looked me up" I sighed.

"I have been tied up with work Addison, It has been a very busy time and a big adjustment" Addison smiled, her blue eyes raking me over in an entirely too possessive manner.

"Well, you're here now and you look wonderful, we must catch up, would you like to grab a drink" I shook my head.

"I am afraid that is not possible, Addison, I am here with friends" She looked at me quizzically.

"Who exactly?" I nodded to where Natalie was standing in front of a striking shot taken in the Grand Canyon.

"That is my friend Natalie over there" Her eyes followed my nod and widened in surprise before narrowing in appraisal, as she then leaned in towards me.

"Oh my god, she's lovely Maura. Mind you, you always did have exquisite taste. Do you share?" I took a half step back, staring at her.

"Share? Of course not, besides, that woman there with her now, that is her partner, Anastasia" She turned once again, seeing Anastasia walk up to hand a bottle of water to Natalie as they shared a smile. Addison, of course, was entirely unfazed, approval evident in her eyes as she took them both in with a practiced eye.

"Ooh, another excellent specimen my darling, they both look like delightfully decadent fun, but then you always were uninhibited and open to experimentation" I glared at her, affronted by her comment.

"Addison, Natalie and Anastasia are our very good friends and nothing more and besides, I am taken" She turned back to me, scepticism evident on her face.

"Really, are you still with Jane? Where is tall, dark and sexy?" I smiled at her description, how little she knew...

"I am, in fact she should be back in a moment, she stepped out to take a call. We are living here in LA" Addison shrugged.

"Ah wonderful my darling; both of you here, available, that is a rather nice opportunity" I sighed, rather theatrically. Jane's habits are definitely rubbing off on me.

"Addison…"

"It's ok darling. I'm sure under your tutelage Jane's turned out spectacularly well but is she still hung up about sex, or have you managed to broaden her horizons" Now it was my turn to arch an eyebrow.

"I can assure you, Jane is not hung up about anything"

"Well, how about a nice session together, just the three of us, dinner, drinks and a night of exploration. If she's not hung up anymore she should be very, very tasty. You could invite your two beautiful friends over there; I'm sure they would be a sumptuous addition to our little Ménage à trois"

I was starting to lose my temper. Addison had been the first woman I had slept with, well she had seduced me, but I had been more than willing to learn, to open myself up to her. Unfortunately it was only later that I realised that Addison had an 'anything that moves' attitude to women, not only did she love women, she saw it as a 'the more the merrier' activity. She also had no qualms about making her intentions known, very well known.

The last time I had seen her was almost a year ago, just after Jane and I had become lovers, when Addison had made a visit to Boston for a medical conference. Addison had made it abundantly clear that she found Jane entirely too enticing, much to Jane's consternation and my annoyance. I was very close to snapping at her when I felt a warm hand on my back.

"Hi Maura, sorry I took so long" She leaned in to give me a kiss, dragging it out for a few seconds; Jane was getting unashamedly territorial and I loved it. "Hello Addison, fancy meeting you here" Addison looked Jane over quite blatantly.

"Jane, I could say the same for you, Maura must be a good influence on you, you look… good"

"Well, I'm surprised to see you here Addison, I didn't think landscapes were your thing, aren't nudes more up your alley" I desperately stifled a giggle as Addison tilted her head to look at Jane for a second.

"Very good Jane, you have changed, quite a bit it would seem. I'm sure that Maura's taught you an awful lot, but if you want an advanced course look me up. After all I taught her everything she knows" Jane rolled her eyes.

"Not everything Addison, her manners certainly didn't come from you, seeing as they're impeccable" Jane looked at me and smiled. I was actually enjoying the new, much more confident person Jane had become recently stretch her legs, it was just Addison's poor timing to be the first to experience the wrong end of it.

Addison's eyes narrowed as she realised this Jane wasn't the same women she had reduced to a stammering wreck with her innuendo and blatant flirting back in Boston.

"Hmm, I'm not exactly sure that all of those changes have been good ones Jane. There was a certain innocent charm you used to have that seems to have been lost, replaced by insolence. It'd be nice to introduce you to some… discipline" I felt Jane tense, but she kept her voice calm.

"I don't think you'd be up to the job Addison, but then, you always did get your ambitions and your capabilities mixed up" I tried desperately to keep my smile off my face as Jane went toe to toe with Addison, refusing to take a backwards step.

"Why Jane, I'd take that as a challenge, would you like to put that assertion to the test?"

"Thanks for the offer but why would I settle for second best?"

"Really Jane, do you think Maura can hold a candle to me?"

"I'm sorry but while Maura may not have your vast experience, she has two thing you don't and won't, commitment and compassion"

"Maura, what HAVE you done to the Jane I used to know. This one has spunk and sass. If the rest of her talents have come as far along, she must be a sensational fuck" I was about to reply when Jane's hand pressed up against my back, cutting me off

"Sorry Addison, but that's something you'll never have any personal experience of. All I know is that I work very hard to ensure Maura has nothing to complain about" I couldn't help it; I had to grin at her words.

Addison was about to answer when her cell started ringing. She sighed and fished it out, her eyes lighting up as she saw the caller ID.

"Teddie darling, where are you... Oh wonderful… I'm just chatting to some friends from out of town…" Jane and I exchanged looks. "Excellent my darling… I'm on my way… Yes, see you very soon…" Putting her cell back in her bag, she looked at us both.

"I'm sorry I can't stick around to spar with you Jane, but I have a beautiful woman waiting for me. If you change your mind, Maura has my number. In the meantime, why don't you seduce your friends over there' Addison gestured across at Natalie and Anastasia, who were looking our way curiously, perhaps picking up on Jane's body language. "They look like they'd be sensational playmates" She looked back at us, smiling wickedly.

"I could just imagine the four of you together, that would be lovely, watching you fuck each other senseless. I'd love to see you eat that gorgeous blonde Jane, make her scream, while the brunette's just perfect for riding Maura's mouth, but you could always switch" I could feel Jane's control starting to slip and pulled her in tight as Addison continued.

"If you do decide to fuck them senseless, do call me, I'd love to play, perhaps I can bring a sixth" Jane's voice was flat.

"Bye Addison, don't wait for a call" I hugged Jane even tighter to me as I spoke.

"Goodbye Addison, it was… interesting seeing you again" She smiled, her eyes raking over us both.

"It's lovely to see you both, I'd love to see… more of you, a lot more. Anyway, must away. Bye"

With that she threaded her way through the crowd and out of the gallery. I couldn't help but feel sorry for whoever this Teddie was, I had no doubt that Addison would whip her into a frenzy, probably while thinking of us with Natalie and Anastasia. Banishing that thought, I looked up at Jane and grinned.

"You were wonderful!" She flashed me the patented Rizzoli grin, all 1000 watts of it.

"Because of you baby, only you" I grabbed her and hugged her tighter, as Anastasia and Natalie walked up.

"Meet an old friend?" Natalie enquired. Jane rolled her eyes.

"You have no idea" Anastasia laughed.

"C'mon, you can tell us over coffee, I need one"

The rest of the afternoon passed much more quietly, we managed to satisfy Natalie and Anastasia's curiosity over lunch without revealing exactly what she had been suggesting; I didn't want to let Addison's ridiculous propositions cause any issues with them.

Anastasia had her possessive side and might just decide to look up Addison to let her know exactly how little she thought of her proposal. For all I knew, Natalie might take it rather personally as well, I had seen her territorial side as well and I didn't want either of them taking matters into their own hands, not that they were not justified in doing so.

We finally bid them a good afternoon and made our way home, crashing on the sofa, tired but happy. I must have dozed off for when I woke I found I was still partially lying on Jane, who was asleep. I smiled at the way her arms were still wrapped around me protectively. I sighed happily and snuggled back into her, drifting back to sleep.

After a light dinner we watched TV for a while, although Jane was a lot quieter than normal, I thought she must have been tired, so I suggested an early night and we made our way to bed. I lay there with her after we turned the lights out, snuggling for a while before trying to sleep. After a few minutes Jane softly spoke.

"Maur?"

"Yes Jane, are you feeling alright?"

"Maur, can we talk?" I rolled back off her to where I could see Jane lying on her back, looking at me.

"Of course, what ever is wrong?" She sighed, then propped herself up on one elbow.

"I'm not sure how I should say this, but I'm remembering what we said about how we can always talk through something that's bothering us" I sat up, letting the sheet pool around my waist.

"Jane, you can always talk to me, I thought that was what we had agreed, that we would always talk things through, no matter what they were" I saw Jane's slow nod, as she scooted back up the bed to rest, sitting against the bed head.

"I know baby, that's why I wanted to talk now, rather than stay awake half the night trying to deal with this" I frowned slightly, wondering what was bothering her. She half laughed, half snorted. "The old Jane would have died before talking to you about this, but I do need to talk"

"Darling, you can tell me anything, you know that" She sighed deeply.

"It's about this afternoon and Addison" I tilted my head, better able to see Jane in the dark as my eyes adjusted to the dim light filtering in from the window.

"I thought you handled her so well, she really had no idea how to deal with you. She was expecting the old Jane and was in no way prepared for you to turn the tables on her" I saw her nod slowly.

"It wasn't really that though babe, it's what she said" I looked at her, trying to remember what Addison had said.

"Which part are you referring to, she was her usual shameless self and I swear that woman enjoys shocking people. It would be amusing if it was not so obviously what she actually believes"

"Yeah, she wants you Maura, she wants you again" I frowned, was Jane insecure?

"You know she will never have me Jane, I am yours" She nodded.

"I know that Maura and I'm yours, now and forever. Besides, she wants me too and I'd die before I let her touch me. She doesn't even care for either of us, we'd be an afternoon's entertainment, two more notches on her bed post on her way to the next conquest" I snickered.

"I think we would probably be more than a single afternoon's work, but I take your point. I have no interest in her either" Jane however didn't see the humour.

"I know that, that's not the problem"

"What is it then?" I saw Jane stare at the sheets in front of her, then draw her knees up to her chest, wrap her arms around them and hug them tightly to her.

"It's the other thing she said" I thought back. Trying to remember what she said, then it clicked.

"Is it the comments about Natalie and Anastasia" She just nodded.

"Did they upset you?" Jane just shook her head. I could see her clearly enough to realise she was close to tears. "Then what did they do?"

"I can't stop thinking about what she said. I know it's wrong, but I can't help it" I suddenly realised what she meant.

"Which part is it, you with Natalie or me with Anastasia?"

"It's wrong, I love you, you're the only woman I've ever wanted, the only person I've truly loved, so why am I even thinking about it" I nodded slowly, realising where she was coming from.

"What makes you upset Jane? The thoughts of being with her or betraying me" I could hear the pain in her voice.

"You're the only one I want Maura; you're everything I ever wanted, the one I love. Why am I even thinking about it?"

"You're thinking about it because she touched a nerve Jane. Some part of you responded to that" The anguish in her voice tore at me.

"But it's wrong. How can I feel this when I love you, only you? What's wrong with me?" The last was almost a sob. I reached out and laid a hand on her knee for a moment.

"Jane, you are human, it's natural that our minds see something enticing and wonder, to think about things that we know will never happen" She looked at me, the tears in her eyes plainly visible, even in the dim light. I tried another tack.

"Did you ever think of shooting someone, someone irritating, even though you knew you would not, you could not?" She tried to smile.

"Hell yes, that idiot Crowe back in Boston, at least once a week"

"That is exactly the same thing Jane. It's the mind suggesting something that we know we will never act upon, often as a stress relief" She looked at me, the hint of a smile fading.

"But Maura, this is something completely different. It's like you said, it's a betrayal. I've betrayed your trust" I considered her for a moment.

"Jane, would you ever consider acting on what you have been thinking, with Natalie?" Her voice was anguished.

"God no, I couldn't, it'd kill me, to know I was cheating on you, betraying your trust, your love"

"Then you have not betrayed me, nor will you, so there is nothing to forgive"

"But why am I even thinking about this. I love the most beautiful. brilliant, wonderful woman in the world; you're the only person I've ever wanted to love, who let me love them and loved me in return, why am I even thinking about someone else?"

"Jane, do you find Natalie attractive?" Her head nodded slowly.

"Do you find her sexually desirable" Jane paused for a moment and then nodded, slower than before.

"So do I" Her head jerked up to stare at me. I nodded. "Anastasia too" Her voice was several octaves higher than normal

"You do?"

"Of course, they are beautiful, sensual, sexual women. Most people who looked at them would experience sexual desire for them. In fact that is probably a healthy thing" Jane was just staring at me, stunned.

Poor Jane, so repressed, I'd done so much to try and drag her out of her shell when it came to sex and her sexuality. She'd made great strides, but every now something like this would happen and remind me how much of her life had been spent repressing the sexual part of her, which was a shame, she could be a remarkably sensual, sexual being if she let herself be.

Finally she spoke.

"But you haven't been thinking about them, having them, I have, ever since that bitch Addison said it. Why the hell did she have to do that?" I understood her frustration.

"Jane, that is Addison, although scientifically impossible, it would seem that her libido is hard-wired directly to her mouth, all logic and anatomy to the contrary. She says whatever she feels like when it comes to sex" I shrugged. "Besides, it is not like I have not considered it before" I watched as her mouth dropped open. I shrugged.

"I have considered it, with both of them, as an idle fantasy, a daydream" Jane just stared at me, before her mouth closed. She was obviously working on what I had said, trying to understand what I had done. I pressed on.

"I was working in my office when Natalie wandered in to talk about a media interview that had been proposed. We discussed it, agreed that I would not do the interview and then chatted a bit longer" Jane nodded, she remembered me telling her about that request.

"After she left it occurred to me that she was a lovely woman. I wondered what she would look like naked, lying in bed, making love" I shrugged. "I found the idea of her, in bed with me, making love to me, stimulating. I must have thought about it for 20 or 30 seconds, by which time I was rather aroused, then banished the thoughts and went back to work. It was an idle daydream, nothing more" Jane's voice was soft.

"I never knew" I smiled.

"Darling, you know I love sex, to me an active imagination is part of a healthy, active sex life" Jane nodded slowly.

"So do you think about it often?" I shrugged.

"Reasonably often, not every time I see her, but I will have the occasional idle fantasy, same with Anastasia. Obviously you have not?"

She shook her head tentatively.

"No not really. I've found Natalie attractive, that first time they came to dinner, when you both played a joke on me and she ended up cuddling me. I was embarrassed because she was so beautiful and pressed up against me, well, I was mostly embarrassed but I was also feeling hot about it. I could feel her body up against mine and it was making me nervous because I was getting turned on"

"How did it make you feel, afterwards' She shrugged, letting her legs slide back down onto the bed, which I took as a good sign, she wasn't as defensive as before.

"I've seen them both looking great. The pool party, well there wasn't left to the imagination there, that night at The Intersection; they were both so sexy. I mean when I first saw Ana dressed that night I felt a rush of heat, she was so hot and then I was practically drooling over Natalie when she first appeared. Mind you then you stepped out and I forgot all about them" I laughed happily.

"That was the general idea Jane, I was rather pleased with the results from that night and I still have that dress too…"

"Then there was the other night at Blush, when you, her and Alex teased the hell out of the three of us. By the time Nat and Alex were finished with me I was so turned in I was actually scared. Then you finished what they'd started"

"Jane, seeing you out on the dance floor, watching Alexandra and Natalie teasing you, managed to be just as arousing to me as it was to you. I was doing the same to Olivia and Anastasia, I will not lie, I enjoyed it, both of them are extremely attractive women, so driving them wild was a wicked delight, but it was harmless fun, they knew I was no more interested in them than Alexandra and Natalie were in you"

I smiled in unconscious memory of that night, Anastasia and Olivia had curvaceous, gym-toned bodies that I had more than an innocent fascination for, they were both so different from Jane's slim and athletic frame, their curves made me understand how Jane must feel when she dances close to me.

"Obviously the memory of that night might prove stimulating in the future, but it was never going to be anything more than that" Jane nodded slowly, processing it.

"So what you're saying is that an imagination is ok, as long as it's just an idle thing, not anything more"

I smiled, Jane was working her way through this, I was sure we were chipping away at another part of the wall of repression that still partially enclosed her sexuality.

"Well, it can be more, as I said a healthy imagination is part of a healthy sex life"

"How much more?"

I smiled and moved on the bed, shifting so I was sitting next to her against the bed head.

"Well, it can be used to get you into the mood, to trigger other things, to be the spark that makes things happen"

"So it can help get us in the mood sometimes" I smiled as I leaned my shoulder and arm against her.

"Of course. For example, Natalie and I were chatting to Sharon over coffee and we ended up talking about our favourite action hero characters" I decided to not discuss exactly why we had been having that particular conversation, even if it all came out well in the end.

"Anastasia carries a torch for Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow, but I am sure that she would look equally good in that same costume" Jane nodded, her eyes on me.

"Sharon mentioned she particularly admired Milla Jovovich in a movie called Ultraviolet, where she was particularly stunning. I did a quick internet search of that movie and it was full of pictures of the character, in boots, tight pants, crop top and a jacket. She has long straight hair and it occurred to me that Sharon would look good as the character, especially given how well she has maintained her body" I smiled at Jane.

"You know I like Kate Beckinsale as Selene, and you would be a great Lara Croft if we ever had to go fancy dress" Jane smiled.

"I'd spend the night drooling over you in that costume but I'd need a wonder bra and padding to be Lara". I smiled.

"I rather like them as they are, they're just the right size and besides, anything more than a handful is a waste" Jane laughed, nudging my breast with her arm.

"What about yours?" I smiled.

"Fortunately you have big hands" We chuckled quietly for a moment.

"Anyway Sharon rather liked the image of Brenda in Seven of Nine's costume, so everyone uses their imagination to picture others in pleasing or stimulating or arousing ways"

Jane sat there for a while, leaning into me slightly, processing what I had said.

"So while Addison may have been the catalyst, it wasn't necessarily her that sent my mind fixating on it, rather it was my imagination" I nodded, pleased.

"Exactly; Natalie and Anastasia are both extremely attractive women, you have seen them at their most alluring, plus you have a pretty good idea of what they look like almost naked having seen them getting changed and by the pool"

"Not to mention hearing them when they're fucking like mad" I smiled, remembering that particular night well.

"Well as I recall, we both found them rather inspiring that night"

"Yeah, they were pretty vocal weren't they?" I leaned in to give her a quick kiss on the cheek.

"As were we if you might recall. I do not doubt that both of them remember that night very well, for the same reason. For all I know it probably inspired their own fantasies, wondering what we were doing, wondering about us together, wondering what it might be like to be with us"

"You think so?" I nodded.

"Both of them are intelligent and quite sexually aware. I have no doubt they have had their own daydreams and fantasies that involve us, individually or collectively" I watched Jane's face twist in thought as she considered that.

"But you're kinda ok with that, because you see it's healthy?"

"It is healthy. I am sure they would never move beyond the occasional wondering thought and appraising glance, because in their eyes we are both very attractive women and they too have seen enough to fuel their own particular fantasies. However at the end of the day, they are our friends and they share a love that is as deep as ours, so neither of them would even consider straying"

"Ok, so you aren't upset that I was kinda fixated on what Addison said?"

"Not at all, I am actually extremely pleased that you talked to me about it, rather than bottling it up" I saw Jane shake her head.

"I was sure there was something wrong with me, that I was going mad".

"Of course not, it was just your imagination taking a scenario and running with it"

"You can say that again" she muttered. I turned to look at her.

"What were you thinking?" I saw her head turn. "Honestly, I really want to know"

"You sure about this Maura?" I nodded enthusiastically, before leaning in to capture Jane's lips in a deep kiss. It went on for a long time, long enough to feel a response rise deep inside me, before I broke away to finish the conversation.

"I want to imagine what you imagined, to see what you saw, I want to get an insight into your fantasies, that way I can use them against you later" She laughed.

"Oh really, against me eh?"

"Well yes, if I realise something particularly turns you on, I will be sure to use that sometime when I want you to do something you normally would nor choose to do, like get dressed up in a gown and heels" I grinned. "I realise I would have to be very nice to you, knowing what turns you on would help" I suddenly felt Jane's arms encircle me and crush me to her.

"Everything you do turns me on Maura, you know that. All you have to do to get me to do anything is ask" I giggled.

"But Jane, where is the fun in that?" Jane chuckled as well.

"True"

"So tell me what you were thinking about?"

"Addison mentioned eating Natalie, and I couldn't help but think about it, I mean she is beautiful"

"Do not sell yourself short either Jane, you are both beautiful" Jane leaned in to kiss me.

"Thanks baby, but even if that was true, Natalie's stunning" I kissed her back before continuing.

Well it is true, you both are. Anyway, you are both tall, have nice legs and aesthetically you would look good together, her long blonde hair and tanned skin, your long dark hair and olive skin would contrast wonderfully"

"I think we look good together"

"We do, but we're talking about your fantasy"

"Well, I was thinking about the night at The Intersection, her in that blue dress and imagining following her into the ladies, surprising her, pushing her into a stall and kissing her. Then I lock the door, kneel and pull her panties aside and start licking her while looking at her, seeing her blue eyes wide as she tried to muffle her moans as I ate her out"

I shifted slightly, Jane's matter of fact delivery may not have tried for heat, but the images playing in my brain were more than making up for it.

"What then" Jane looked at me for a moment, then continued.

"She lifts one leg up and over my shoulder, while her hand grabs my hair, pushing me into her pussy, harder. As I look at her, I see her eyes get bigger and bigger, she start panting as I push her harder and harder, getting her closer and closer to coming. When she comes, despite her best efforts, she screams and I have to catch her to stop her falling"

I was definitely aroused now; the image of the two of them together had ignited a slow burn in my groin.

"What happens then Jane" She shook her head.

"At about that time, I kept realising that what I was thinking about was wrong and would stop and try and think of something else" I blinked. Poor Jane, to deny herself pleasure like that.

"Darling, it is ok to give yourself over to pleasure, a fantasy is safe and harmless and done right can be a pleasant replacement for sex when you are alone or a nice prelude to sex when we are together"

"Ok baby, tell me one of yours" I shifted a bit, wondering where to begin, when a nasty, evil thought came to mind. I had just the thing.

"Well darling, how about one that just came to mind, one that is particularly appropriate" The curiosity was evident in her voice.

"Go on"

"Our good friend Addison wants to bed us both, I can imagine she has this idea that she would control the night, it would run to her schedule and deliver what she wanted"

"Yes…"

"But Jane, neither you nor I are the people we once were. You demonstrated that to her this afternoon, while I am much more open and confident than I was when she seduced me years ago"

"Uh huh…"

"Well imagine we decided that she needed to be taken down a peg, we invite her to our place and fuck some of that arrogance out of her" Jane smiled wickedly.

"That sounds good, but she would probably get off on it" I shook my head.

"No, because we would take control and use her for our pleasure, not hers"

"Oh, how?"

"Close your eyes Jane and imagine this" I settled myself next to her and got comfortable as she closed her eyes.

"Addison looked nice in that dress, but it would look even better pooled around her feet. She has a nice body and she keeps her pussy completely bare, so you could see the wetness as she imagines having us" I paused for a moment, picturing the scene.

That's when we step up to her and while I distract her you pull her hands behind her back and cuff her. Just imagine the yelp as she realises that we now control what happens. Knowing her it might even turn her on even more"

"You use that commanding, Detective Rizzoli voice of yours and order her to stand still, as we undress each other slowly in front of her, kissing and touching each other, taking our time and warming each other up" I could hear Janes breathing increase in tempo slightly as she got into the fantasy.

"I would walk up to her and lick and suck her nipples, making her moan, distracting her from realising you had gone into the bedroom and brought out our toys, standing out of her view. While she moaned you fixed that lovely eight inch strap on around your hips and deep within you. Imagine looking at her from behind, looking forward to bending her over and taking her Jane, it will be wonderful" Jane was deep into the fantasy now, her mouth was slightly open and she was panting ever so slightly.

I decided to take it further and slowly ghosted my fingertips across her thigh, eliciting a shiver as I continued.

"Then, I step away, making her whine, which gives you the chance to step up behind her and use that paddle to spank her ass. Wrap one strong arm around her waist and start paddling her ass as she moans and squeals. Meanwhile I walk over and get another strap on and pull it on, settling it tight round my hips and inside me" I smiled, Jane's hand had moved to my thigh and was moving in slow circles, my flesh tingling from the contact.

"You see me settling it inside me and tightening the straps and you just know what we're going to do to her. I walk over to you and kiss you deeply, as you run the paddle over her nicely reddened cheeks. You can hear her whimpering like the slut she is, she might protest but she loves the paddle, loves you to put her in her place" I was startled by Janes, quiet words, almost a moan.

"Oh god, that's hot"

I was dripping, both at the imagery and the thought that Jane was caught up in the moment. I realised that Jane and I were moving to a new plateau in her sexuality, one I knew would pay dividends later.

"Yes it is, you can see her pussy dripping and she is ready, so very ready. You step up behind her and kick her ankles wider apart, while I lift the handcuffs, making her bend forward, exposing her to us both. You guide your cock into her pussy, hearing her moan as you do, feeling the dildo inside you push into you as you push into her" Jane was panting now, the only reason I wasn't doing the same was because I was concentrating on conveying the images inside my head. I slid my hand round and down onto the inside of Jane's thigh, moving slowly higher,

"She's enjoying this Jane; she thinks that it is all for her, time to show her the truth. I walk around in front of her as you slowly pump in and out, not hard enough to get her off, enough to make her eager. You have your hands on her hips, pulling her back onto your cock, watching it slide all the way in and out, in and out. You can hear the soft slaps of skin on skin when you push all the way in" I could hear Jane's soft moans and see one hand playing with her nipple, as the other slid up to the top of my thigh.

"Yes, Addison thinks it is all about her, until I step in front of her and stand there, my cock pointing at her face. Before she can protest I grab two fistfuls of her hair and guide her mouth to my cock. I push forward as you thrust, forcing it into her mouth, making her take me inside her, making her suck me off"

Jane was obviously extremely turned on now, so I slid my hand up to the juncture of her thighs, feeling the slick wetness there only confirmed it. Jane was moaning softly almost continuously as I slid my fingers across her lips, while she played with her nipples. It was all I could do to not moan as well.

"We stand there Jane, pulling her back and forward, not fast enough to get her off, but fast enough to control her. Every time you thrust, her mouth swallows my cock, when you pull back; she slides her mouth almost off it. By now Addison realises that we control her, we control when, how, or even if she gets off. She does not like it, but bent over like this, caught between us, with you controlling her movements by holding onto her cuffed arms, she is at our mercy to do whatever we wish" I could see that Jane was climbing towards a climax, her breath was shallow and her eyes were squeezed tightly shut.

"I step back and let Addison's mouth release my cock. She thinks it is time for something else and she is right, but oh so wrong. I walk around her, back to stand next to you. Still holding her wrists up to ensure she stays bent over, you pull your cock out of her, all slicked with her juices, slick and wet. Before she can move, I step up and thrust my cock in, sliding it in easily, she's so very wet, thanks to you pumping in and out of her. I take control of the cuffs as you step around to her front"

Jane was panting faster and faster, I'm sure her mind had already jumped to where this was going, as her fingers were tweaking her nipples, while the other had moved directly to my pussy and had sought out my clit, flicking back and forwards over it, causing me to spasm. With an effort I forced my mind back to the fantasy.

"You stand in front of her, looking at her" I paused. "Mmm, that's lovely Jane" I paused for a moment to enjoy what Jane was doing, before returning to the story.

"Addison can see your long cock, coated with her juices and she shakes her head, she does not want to do this, but you grab her head and guide her towards it. She tries to keep her mouth closed, but I reach round and finger her clit, causing her to gasp and letting you guide your cock into her mouth" I was having trouble concentrating, but I didn't think it mattered, Jane was close. Very close. I leaned in towards her, pouring the words into her ear.

"We start pumping her darling, faster and faster, feeling the thrust inside us as we push inside her. You watch her mouth sliding more and more of your cock into her with each thrust, deeper and deeper. You hear her moans, but you ignore them, as you concentrate on getting off on her. Soon Addison is completely impaled on us, front and back; as we use her, make use of her for our own pleasure, make her realise she is only here for us to use, not the other way round" Jane was moaning continuously, she was close, I slipped two fingers inside her and curled them forward, reaching for her pressure point and rubbing it furiously as my thumb vibrated over her clit, making her come for me.

With a shuddering cry, Jane stiffened and shook, her cries choking off to a shuddering sob as she came undone, before slumping against the bed head, spent.

I sat back, still painfully aroused myself, but so pleased at what I had achieved with Jane, as she took another step on the road to erotic freedom, leaving more of her inhibitions and shackles behind.

As I came down I realised Jane had opened her eyes and was watching me.

"My god Maur, that was… incredible" she whispered. I smiled slowly.

"You liked?" Her voice was low and breathy.

"God yes, how do you do that, make it so real?" I laughed gently.

"The benefits of a classical education, although I doubt my parents quite envisioned this when I took advanced English Literature, Lady Chatterley's Lover was quite… inspirational"

She laughed softly before reaching over and pulling me tight to her. I revelled in her heat, her still slightly fast breathing, her strong arms around me.

"Maura, you haven't come yet"

I smiled, Jane was always so giving, always more concerned about me than herself, her protectiveness and concern made me feel so loved, at times I wanted to wrap it like a blanket around me, to keep me safe and warm.

"It is fine darling, I am rather tired and it is getting late, you can make up for it tomorrow night"

"You sure baby? I hate the idea of you trying to get to sleep while turned on. I'd love to return the favour"

"I will be fine"

"Ok, but tomorrow night we might finish this. Imagine Addison flat on her back, me kneeling between her legs fucking her with the strap-on, while you ride her mouth facing me. We each twist and play with each others breasts, while we kiss above her"

I lay there for a few seconds, as the images wormed into my brain. Damn, Jane was a fast learner. I pulled back from her arms, looking into her eyes.

"On second thoughts Jane, about that offer" I smiled. "I have changed my mind"


	96. Chapter 96

**Brenda has some visitors**

Brenda's viewpoint

I was sitting at my desk, wrapping up some paperwork, well to be honest I was staring out into the squad room trying to get some motivation to finish it, when I noticed a small commotion as Mikki Mendoza from SIS walked in.

I'd worked with Mikki several times, back when we needed an undercover woman for a case, she was wonderfully competent. I would have stolen her from the Special Investigation Service ages ago, but hadn't wanted to get into a dreadful fight with Pope and Commander Ruiz of SIS. Ruiz had always made her available when I needed her, so it wasn't worth getting into a pissing match over it.

I watched as she chatted to Sanchez and Provenza, which was no surprise, especially Provenza. They had past history those two, Mendoza had been his rookie shortly after she made detective. He had almost a fatherly affection for her, unlike Sanchez, who had a completely different affection for her, although I didn't believe he was ever likely to realise his ambitions. Poor Julio, for all of his talents, he seemed to miss some signals completely.

As I watched Mikki and Jane started chatting, which was interesting. They were two extremely similar personalities; they even looked similar; lean striking women, unruly manes of dark hair and a 'don't mess with me' attitude. I could imagine those two as the best of friends or the worst of enemies.

The general discussion went on for a few minutes before she excused herself and walked towards my end of the squad room, where she was joined by Andrea Hobbs, my favourite Deputy District Attorney and together they made their way to my door, where Mikki stood aside for Andrea.

"Chief Johnson, do you have a moment?"

"Andrea, Mikki, for you, always. Come on in please and have a seat" I stood and smiled as they took seats in front of me and smiled in return as I sat back.

"Sorry to bother you Chief"

"It's really not a bother Mikki, honestly, seeing you both lets me put off some boring paperwork for a bit longer. Now, how can I help you all?" They looked at each other, each waiting for the other to speak. I felt my smile widen.

"I promise you, no matter what you may have heard, I don't bite" They both smiled, while I watched Mikki nod gently to Andrea.

"Well Brenda, it's a little personal but we wanted to come and chat to you about something we heard" I smiled even wider.

"Ask away, after all I can only say no"

"We've heard a rumour that you might be um…" She looked uncertain how to proceed. I raised my eyebrows as I looked at them. Mikki jumped in, as I thought she might, she'd never been a patient one.

"That you were seeing someone, someone here in the LAPD" I sat back, not exactly sure where this had come from.

"Really, I wasn't aware that my personal life was the subject of rumours and gossip" Andrea looked like she wanted to die, while Mikki looked at the floor. Finally Andrea spoke.

"News travels Brenda, some of it good, some bad, and we thought we should come and talk to you directly, to let you hear what was being said and give you the chance to set us straight" Mikki jumped in to back Andrea up, which I was finding interesting.

"You're the LAPDs most senior woman Chief, people talk about you and you're an inspiration to a lot of other woman in the department" I snorted, me, a role model?

"I sincerely doubt that too many people would be looking up to me Mikki, I've had my ups and downs, as both of you are well aware" Mikki nodded.

"True, but it's also true that you have had a lot of success since you've come to the LAPD"

Andrea leaned forward to speak up, supporting Mikki; interesting.

I wondered if I was reading too much into their behavior projecting my own experiences on these two, maybe hanging around with gay women and now being one myself was colouring my perspective. I dragged my attention back to Andrea as she spoke.

"Brenda, when you first arrived here, the Priority Murder Squad was an experiment. You made it work, to the point that Major Crimes is an established part of the LAPD, there's no way anyone would dare consider tampering with the success that it's become, under you"

I held my hands up, stopping them; I needed to set the record straight.

"If Major Crimes has been a success, it's because it's been a team effort, the people out there in that office, they do the hard grind, the boring and tedious and difficult work that makes solving the cases easier. Major Crimes is their success, not mine" They shared another look before Andrea spoke.

"And that's why people talk about you Brenda, you lead a team and you give credit to everyone under you, that's pretty rare at some of the senior levels of the LAPD" I felt myself blushing slightly.

"Oh for heaven's sakes, you're both trying to turn my head. You must want something" I smiled to take the sting out of my words. "Out with it"

Again they shared a look, before Mikki spoke again.

"Chief, the rumour is that you and Commander Raydor are, well, more than friends" She looked nervous and awkward.

I looked at them for a moment, wondering where this was leading, but also aware that sooner or later people outside our squads would start putting things together, even though we'd asked them to keep it to themselves. Probably it was one of the Tactical Response guys who'd not kept his mouth quiet, Sharon and I together was much too juicy gossip not to spread around.

"Whatever gave people that idea?" Mikki looked over to Andrea for help.

"People say they saw you two together at the LAPD Ball, we weren't there but others were and there's been some talk since that well, you and the Commander have become very close" Mikki leaned forward.

"I also heard that you were spotted at Blush dancing with a striking brunette wearing glasses, Commander Raydor certainly fits that description"

"I see"

There was silence for a few seconds, before I tried again.

"And what's your interest in this gossip" They both started to fidget before Mikki took the bull by the horns.

"We wanted to know if it was true Chief because, well, you inspire a lot of people here at the LAPD, including me. I was wondering if it was true, because if it is, it makes it easier for other people to be honest about things as well" I looked at them, putting two and two together, good to see my instincts weren't completely wrong.

"Ah, you and Andrea…" They glanced at each other and back at me, before they both nodded.

"I understand now" I settled back in the chair and smiled at them.

"While it's not public knowledge, or at least I didn't think it was, but yes, Sharon and I are together" They both broke out in wide smiles.

"That's great news Chief"

"Congratulations Brenda" I nodded my thanks before asking a question of my own.

"How long have you been together?"

Andrea reached out, catching Mikki's hand in hers.

"Almost four months, it sort of happened as a surprise" I looked at Mikki, her normally striking features softening at Andrea's touch.

"I'd heard the rumours Mikki, but I would never have asked. Andrea, were you also into girls before Mikki dragged you off into the night and corrupted you" They both laughed happily.

"Once, a long time ago, but we were working closely on a major case and decided to go out for drinks one Friday night. We started to talk and things kind of went from there"

"I'm happy for both of you" They both smiled at me, almost as if I blessed them or something equally silly. Andrea leaned forward.

"We're happy for you and Commander Raydor as well, it's not often you meet couples like us in the LAPD"

I couldn't help it; I laughed, laughed until my sides hurt and tears came. I finally managed to calm down enough to see them looking at me with strange expressions as I wiped the tears away, noticing a few funny looks from out in the bullpen as well.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to laugh but you obviously haven't been keeping up with current events" Mikki tilted her head to one side.

"What do you mean?"

"Jane Rizzoli, the woman you met outside in the squad room, on loan from Boston PD, she is" They both turned to look at Jane, who was standing, one hand on her hip, obviously giving Flynn some grief, probably about baseball. "Her partner is our new Medical Examiner, Maura Isles" Mikki turned to me, a shocked look on her face.

"I've seen her; she gave us a brief on some new procedures the week before last. She's gorgeous"

"You may have also heard we have a new media liaison person, Natalie Dearing?" Mikki looked at me pensively.

"Is that the blonde everyone's talking about, Ruiz couldn't stop raving about her after that senior officer's meeting. She's supposed to be beautiful" I nodded.

"Yes she is. She's also the partner of our new FBI liaison officer, Anastasia Romanov" Now it was Andrea's turn to look shocked.

"I've met her at an inter-agency meeting last week, she's lovely"

"That she is. I'm pleased to be able to call them all my friends. So as you can see you're not alone" They looked at me, then at each other. Andrea smiled at Mikki, which was happily returned, before they turned back to me.

"Brenda would you and Sharon do us the honour of being our guests for dinner? Just let us know when you're free, we'd love to talk" I smiled.

"I can't commit to a date just yet Andrea. I'll have to talk to Sharon, I don't know her schedule, but I'm sure we'd love to do it. I'll chat to her and be in touch soon" Mikki smiled.

"Let us know, we'll be good with whatever date works for you guys" I nodded.

"I will, it shouldn't be too long" Andrea caught Mikki's eye and they exchanged a look before they turned back to us.

"If you don't mind and you think it's appropriate, we'd like to meet your friends too" I smiled.

"Andrea, it'd be my pleasure"


	97. Chapter 97

**An audience with the Pope**

Brenda's viewpoint

There are many advantages to being Sharon Raydor's lover, oh so very many, almost too many to count.

My favourites include Sharon's kisses, how she makes me feel when she snuggles up against me when we're falling asleep after making love, the way we fit together seamlessly on the sofa, in bed, doing almost anything together.

The thought of her body, that glorious work of art, her long, strong legs wrapped around me and those full breasts in my hands and on my tongue, the taste of her makes me come alive. Burying my face in her hair and just breathing in the essence of her scent, the memory of her body, tangled with mine. Oh so many memories.

Others include how Sharon can turn me on with a look, a smile, a raised eyebrow or that patented Commander Raydor smirk, not to mention how good she is at following through on those unspoken promises, leaving me a shattered, satiated wreck afterwards, before coaxing me back for more.

Today however I think the best part of being Sharon's lover is that I can shoot Will Pope and get away with it, no way would Sharon find any wrongdoing here.

Mind you, I may have to act fast, given the glare Sharon's giving Pope she may shoot him first, which just won't do. I have absolutely no intention of having to visit Sharon in prison, let alone giving up the rights to her after-hours attention. Besides, she'd look dreadful in orange; it's just not her colour.

No, if Pope died right here it'd be at my hand, I just knew Sharon would have my back.

Besides, I mused, given the ranting Pope was doing, maybe they could claim it was self-defence.

Ever since I'd arrived at his office in response to a peremptory summons, walking in to find Sharon already sitting there as Pope scowled at her, I knew exactly what this was all about, Will's ego.

He'd immediately started on how he'd heard rumours that Sharon and I were somehow involved and he wanted to hear the truth from us. How we were going to shut the rumours down, that we were not involved, prove that they weren't true.

I'd looked at Sharon and she'd looked back at me with that fractionally raised eyebrow and shrugged ever so minutely, I knew immediately what she meant. '_Will you tell him or will I?_'

I'd looked back at her, sighed gently and nodded slightly. '_I will_'

"What do you want to hear Will? That Sharon and I aren't involved? Sorry, but I'm not gonna lie, we are" His eye's grew wide and his voice got louder, a lot louder.

"Jesus Christ Brenda, what the hell's got into you" I narrowed my eyes at his words and tone as I struggled to remain polite.

"Chief Pope, perhaps you might like to explain exactly what you mean by that" He controlled his voice with effort and gestured towards Sharon.

"You and her, that's what, what exactly were you thinking?" I could feel my teeth grinding, never a good sign.

"That I might want to be happy, that somehow, after a personal and professional year in hell, I've found someone who makes me very happy. Someone I care about very much"

"But Sharon Raydor of all people? You two used to fight like cats and dogs. Is this some kind of rebound thing? You're doing this to spite Fritz Howard?"

I felt my jaw tighten as I clenched my teeth and stared at him. Finally I ground out the words, desperately trying not to lose my temper, god knows I wanted to.

"No, this is not some kind of spite thing" Pope's sense of self-preservation was obviously on holiday, as he kept digging himself deeper.

"Then what is it, some kind of mid-life crisis affair?" I could barely believe the rubbish spilling from his lips.

"No, it is not some mid-life crisis, nor is it some kind of cheap, tawdry affair. God knows you would know, you're the expert on those"

"How dare you" I cut him off, too angry to care. To suggest what Sharon and I had was…

"No! How dare you? How dare you cast aspersions on my personal life? What gives you the right?"

"When it affects the LAPD, that's what gives me the right" I leaned forward in the chair.

"You didn't give a damn when I was married to the LAPD liaison officer or when my marriage started falling apart" Sharon's voice was dry.

"Nor when Captain Macintyre and Lieutenant Collins became involved, as I understand it, you attended their wedding and gave a nice speech about how you wished them continuing happiness" I flicked a grateful glance her way before going back on the offensive.

"Two of your senior officers are dating, so what? It's not against the rules, as long as it doesn't affect our work and we aren't in a direct chain of command" He threw his hands up in exasperation, or maybe frustration.

"But you should know better, god damn it Brenda…You should have told me before you went off and did something this stupid" Sharon's voice was cold as ice.

"Chief Pope, I'm surprised that I have to remind you of the LAPD code of conduct when it comes to co-worker relationships. As long as all the appropriate measures are in place to avoid conflicts of interest and such, in accordance with policy and HR has been appropriately notified, then you had no reason to be informed" I jumped right in after her, fire to her ice.

"And you'd better damn well apologise right now, if you know what's smart"

"Apologise for what?"

"For suggesting this is stupid. Damn you Will, I will not be lectured to by you about my personal relationships. God knows I've made mistakes, but this isn't one of them"

"You don't have the best track record with relationships, you've made mistakes" I stared at him through slitted eyes, as my words came out cold.

"Yes I have and don't I know it" He flushed as he realised what I was getting at; now it was time to rub some salt in those wounds. "And as a man with a string of failed marriages and relationships behind you, I hardly think you're in any position to be getting all high and mighty with me"

He sat there for a moment, obviously not sure what to say. Finally he spoke, trying another tack.

"But how will this look, both of you are senior officers, when it gets out? This could reflect on the Department. What will people think?" I smiled inwardly; he'd given me an opening.

"So your concern is only for the department and its image?"

"The well-being of the LAPD is my responsibility" Sharon smiled softly.

"Of course it is. That's why you don't care that three other members of your senior officer's team are lesbians involved with co-workers; it's only an issue when it's Brenda and I"

"They're not the two most senior female officers in the LAPD. How will it look?" I shook my head.

"Look Will, how much of this is actual worry for the Department and how much is because this means that you've lost two things you want in in a single stroke"

"Me, what's this got to do with me?" Sharon spoke before I could.

"It's well known you still carry a torch for Brenda, and you've made your interest in me painfully obvious. Now you have to deal with losing what you want, losing your chance with either Brenda or I"

Will was glaring at Sharon, I wanted to distract him from her and get us back on track.

"If you were honest Will, you'd accept that we'd both made it clear it wasn't going to happen and be happy for us" I shrugged as we tag teamed him, Will really should have learned from the Taylor incident not to piss us both off at the same time and place.

"We were not going to get back together again, not a second time, too much waters gone under the bridge for that" I shook my head. "Neither of us are the people we used to be" 'I sat back as the thought ran through my head '_Thank god for that_'.

Sharon looked across at me for a moment as if she could read my thoughts; it really wouldn't surprise me if she could, before turning to look at Will across his desk.

"As for the possibility of you and I Chief, well you now know why that was never going to happen, it's not you, it's your gender" He sat back, obviously processing what we'd said.

The silence stretched on for almost a minute before he spoke. I felt like rolling my eyes; Will was still trying to convince himself that this was all about work.

"What happens if this starts affecting your work?" I had to chuckle at that, talk about grasping straws...

"The relationship between Major Crimes and FID has never been better, as you are well aware"

"But what happens now you two are…" A hand wave in our general direction. "…involved?" Sharon's voice was flat.

"Nothing" Will's head tilted.

"Excuse me?" Sharon sat back, rested her elbows on the chair's arms and steepled her fingers, looking over the tops at Will coolly.

"Both squads are not only stable and working well, but our respective closure rates are as good as ever"

"That was before you two were…" He waved his hand dismissively. I smiled.

"It had no influence on our ability to close the sniper case" I could see Sharon's gentle smile from the corner of my eye.

"Nor on closing the LAPD Ball bombing"

"Or on the closure of the Deputy Mayor's son's case or even that horror movie producer's case" Pope fell back in his chair, his eyes flicking between us.

"You two were… back then" I grinned.

"You can say it Will, the word is together. And yes, we were together back then"

"How long has this exactly been going on" I shrugged, looking across at Sharon.

"Dating, back before the Ball, something more…" I smiled across at Sharon, getting a slight smile in return. "Not long afterwards"

Will dropped back in his seat, his hand to his face. Finally he dropped the hand, to look at the two of us there. I really wanted to reach out and take Sharon's hand, I needed her touch but didn't dare, so I sat there, my hands resting in my lap desperately trying for calm in the face of his gaze. Sharon was doing the same, waiting.

Eventually he shook his head slowly, as I tilted my head to the side to look at him. It was a mannerism of Sharon's I'd picked up over time; out of the corner of my eye I could see Sharon was doing the same and I desperately tried not to smile.

Will's eyes flicked from Sharon to me and back again, over and over as he frowned.

"Is this some sort of weird double act thing you've got going to freak people out?" I frowned, and turned to look at Sharon, who was frowning as well. She looked at me and I suddenly realised what he was talking about.

I was wearing my Armani suit and heels with a simple silver chain and matching studs, gifts from Sharon, I'd gone all Raydor power pants suit, mine was black and hers was black pinstripe, she was wearing a gold chain with a small diamond pendant and matching earrings.

In fact Sharon had idly commented on it as we got dressed this morning at my place. To add to it we were sitting there in almost identical poses, hands in our laps and legs crossed at the ankles. I looked back at him and smiled as Sharon spoke.

"Well, it's working, isn't it?"

He stared at us for a moment as Sharon smiled, before I started giggling. Will looked back and forward between us as his eyebrows rose as Sharon started chuckling too. His mouth twitched for a moment, before he started laughing.

We must have laughed for a good ten seconds, the tension bleeding out of the room. Finally we subsided as he looked at us, a ghost of a smile still there.

"Well…" I looked at Sharon and smiled, before looking back at him.

"Well…?"

"Can you at least try and keep this under wraps" He must have seen my expression change as he quickly held his hand up. "Not hide it, I didn't mean that, just try not to have it front page news, if you can" Sharon nodded.

"That was never our intention" I shrugged.

"HR and our squads know, some of our friends know, I'm interested in how you found out though?" He sighed.

"Belinda's husband is a paramedic; he heard it from another paramedic who was on the scene at the aftermath of the sniper case" I nodded as Sharon spoke.

"I'm surprised that it's such a big deal for the paramedics" I blushed as Will looked at her.

"Brenda closed a case on the killing of two paramedics and then prevented the massacre of three hundred more at their memorial service. They awarded her their highest medal for bravery in recognition, so yes, Brenda's a big deal for a lot of paramedics" If anything I blushed even more, I could feel my cheeks flaming as I heard Sharon's soft words.

"Oh, I see" Hopefully changing the subject I brought up an issue I was concerned about.

"I just hope Taylor leaves this alone" I looked up at Will's chuckle.

"I don't think you will have too much to worry about on that score, at least for a while" I frowned as Sharon leaned forward.

"Why not, I would have thought this would have been the perfect opportunity for him to have a go at Brenda and I"

"Taylor has his own issues right now; he crossed swords with Natalie Dearing at the Ball and came out of it very second best. He's been running round trying to clean up his past and shore up support with the union and some of the other senior officers, or so I understand it" I shared a puzzled look with Sharon.

"What could Natalie have done to scare Taylor?" Will shrugged.

"You'll have to ask her, or maybe Andy Flynn, he was there I'm told" Sharon looked at him.

"How did you learn of it?" He smiled smugly.

"I may spend too much time in this office or over at City Hall, but I have my sources everywhere" At my questioning look he shrugged. "Someone was near enough to hear it all and mentioned it to someone else. It was too good not to gossip about, so eventually it reached my ears" I nodded slowly as Sharon smiled.

"Let's hope he stays occupied"

"Apparently she took him apart fairly comprehensively, so he has bigger problems just now" I flicked a glance across to Sharon and got one in return as we shared a thought; we needed to talk to Natalie, soon.

Will looked across at us both and coughed, bringing our attention back to him.

"Just because he's otherwise occupied doesn't mean that he can't still stir up trouble, so try and be discreet, for all our sakes" He leaned forward before we could respond.

"And don't go looking to capitalise on his problems either, I don't need yet another three-way shit fight between Robbery Homicide, Major Crimes and FID. Got it?" Sharon and I nodded.

"Understood Will"

"Yes Chief" He sat there for a moment, then gestured to the door.

"I'm sure you both have work to do" We both stood and nodded goodbye, before he stopped us near the door.

"Oh Chief Johnson, Commander Raydor, one more thing" We turned to look at him as he smiled gently. "Merry Christmas"

We both smiled and wished him Merry Christmas before beating a hasty retreat out of there. Once out near the lifts we looked around for a moment, but there was no one in earshot. Sharon leaned forward and spoke softly.

"That went better than I was dreading" I nodded, keeping my voice low.

"You and me both" Her hand came up and rubbed my arm for a moment as I sighed at her touch.

"My place tonight honey?" I smiled, feeling warm all over at the thought of another night in her arms.

"Love to, we've only got five days till we head off to our families for Christmas so we need to spend as much quality time together until then" Sharon sniggered.

"You make it sound like it's going to be months apart, it's only four days" I dropped my head and looked up at her through my lashes.

"Sweetie, four days without you is going to feel like four weeks" She smiled softly back at me.

"I know honey; it's going to be hard" Leaning forward she pushed the elevator button.

"You could always take a toy or two with you to tide you over" I rolled my eyes at her, getting a chuckle in return.

"I am not going to give some TSA goon a cheap thrill as he checks my luggage an besides, god help me if my momma found it while I was in Atlanta" The elevator arrived, fortunately empty. We stepped in and pushed the buttons for our respective floors as the door closed.

"Brenda, you want to bring over Thai tonight; our usual?"

"You want something for dessert?" She smiled as she reached out and slipped her hand into mine.

"I have all the dessert I want right here" I wanted to kiss her right then and there but there were camera's in the lifts. Damn.

"Any particular flavour dessert you'd like tonight?" She made a show of thinking about it for a moment before leaning towards me and speaking softly.

"Yeah, I think I'd like something in lace tonight" I swallowed into a suddenly dry mouth. "What about you Brenda, any preferences" I felt the elevator coming to a stop at her floor as Sharon let go of my hand, I missed her touch immediately. I looked up and smiled.

"Yeah, leather would be just perfect" I got a wicked grin as the doors opened and she stepped out, turning on her heel to face me as the doors started to close.

"I think I have that flavour somewhere in my closet, I'll see what I can do" As the door closed she gave me a cheeky wink, leaving me staring at the doors, my body tingling.

I'd been wrong about Sharon. It wasn't hard making love to her; the hardest part was not being able to have her all the time. As the doors opened on my floor, I found myself wondering.

It'd been just on two months since that night at Melisse where we'd both poured our hearts out, setting us on the journey to where we were now. Was it too early for us to move in together, was I rushing things?

We barely spent a night apart now, but making it permanent was a big step. On the other hand, I didn't have to take that step alone.

Like everything in my life with Sharon now, we'd take it together.


	98. Chapter 98

**Christmas Part 1**

**Boston. Massachusetts**

After LA, Boston felt both familiar and strange. Maura's place on Beacon Hill was as beautiful as ever, but it felt different, it was a house now, not a home. Ma was still living in the guest house, making sure the house was spotless when we arrived for Christmas, but it wasn't our home, not anymore.

Oh they tried, Maura had arranged for a tree to be delivered and everyone had pitched in to help trim it, Ma, Tommy and Frankie, Frost and Korsak, by the time they'd finished it looked lovely but the house around it felt different. So many of the important little things that made a house a home, like photos and mementoes and knick knacks were back in the place in California, that was our home now.

It was good seeing everyone though, even if Ma barely waited until we were out of the car service from Boston Logan airport and through the front door before asking about marriage and grandkids, getting a rueful smirk from Maura directed at me, I'd bet she wouldn't wait 10 minutes before starting, Maura'd bet 15 minutes. Actual elapsed time; 7 minutes.

I'd just rolled my eyes at her and laughed, telling Ma to talk to us about it another time but she'd just ignored me and piled on the whole guilt thing, how she wasn't getting any younger and needed grandbabies to spoil. Finally, realising we weren't going to take the bait, she sat down and spent the next hour and a half asking us about all that had happened in LA, wanting every little detail. Finally we pushed her off to bed and crashed, it was late and the flight and the time zones really worked against you flying east.

The following day was Saturday so after breakfast with Ma we'd spent some time out and about, enjoying the whole white Christmas thing before meeting up with Susie Chang and Riley Cooper for lunch at Susie's apartment. They were both looking good and their relationship was going fine, fortunately they'd managed to keep it a lot quieter than we had, so no one really knew they were together, either in the M.E.s office or any of the people in Homicide.

They were really happy to see us, but I could tell they were disappointed to learn that we were going to accept a permanent move to L.A. Apparently several of the detectives were likely to murder Maura's replacement, that bumbling fool Pike, sooner rather than later. He was so bad that several prosecutions were going to be lost in court when the defence went to town on the sloppy forensics work and he was driving Susie to distraction.

We'd invited them to come and visit us out in LA, we'd introduce them to some of our friends and they could be as open as they liked, far from the people at work. The smiles we got and the speed that they'd agreed to visit us bothered me a bit, until I realised that they were really missing us, not just as coworkers but as friends. They also understood we were leaving Boston probably for good.

We had a good time that afternoon, being with them was great and to see them so happy together was wonderful, but there was an underlying air of sadness that I had a feeling was going to be a big part of this Christmas.

Later that day we'd met Frost, Korsak and Frankie at the Dirty Robber for drinks and burgers; unhealthy as hell but the Robber meant a lot to us both. Maura had once said it was the site of the majority of our unsuspecting dates, back before we woke up to ourselves and got together.

Frankie had just been provisionally accepted for detective, working narcotics rather than homicide as he wanted, but he still held out hope that he could make the move to homicide soon enough, he had Frost's promise to be his partner when he finally made it into the squad. We gossiped about people we knew in Boston PD, they wanted to know about Major Crimes and LA, we spent hours there sitting and chatting, occasionally getting Christmas well wishes from people we'd met in the Robber over the years, it was kinda nice to feel that connection.

They were all sad to hear we were going to relocate to LA, it was hard seeing them trying to be upbeat about it, when it was obvious to us both that they were disappointed, but we'd explained that we'd had a great opportunity, the support we had from our bosses and the people we worked with was great and that it was a chance to start afresh in a new city.

We had too much history here, too many people with axes to grind, Boston in the last few months we were here had started to feel stifling, like we'd been caged by everyone else's expectations and demands, by contrast Los Angeles had been a breath of fresh air.

We'd got them to agree that they were going to come out and visit us soon, but I could tell it wasn't something they wanted to hear. We also asked them to keep it to themselves until after we had a chance to tell our family tomorrow at dinner.

On Sunday we'd had a big family dinner, Angela, Frankie and Tommy, a full Rizzoli-style Italian dinner. While Maura and Ma chatted in the kitchen, Frankie and Tommy had dragged me off to a back room and complained about how Ma was on their backs all the time about settling down and having kids. To be honest I'd been less than supportive, reminding them I'd had years of this shit, now it was their turn to man up and take it.

When Frankie had complained that Ma was constantly trying to set him up with nice Italian girls, 'good breeders' as she so delicately put it, I'd practically rolled on the floor with laughter, remembering all those guys she'd tried to set me up with. I'd taken great pleasure in reminding them of that rather tragic dating history and informing them that as I was officially a lesbian, breeding a new generation of Rizzoli's was now their responsibility.

Needless to say they weren't impressed.

We waited until after dinner and the washing up was done before bringing up our move to Los Angeles. As expected Ma turned on quite the performance, complete with tears and mournful claims we were abandoning her. I'd shrugged and told her that she was only a phone call away, though inwardly I'd winced as it was basically giving her open slather to ring me all the time. Maura had been more supportive, but we were quietly adamant that we were doing this, this time doing what was right for us.

Finally she'd wound down as she realised we were serious, before starting on the grandkids thing again. With glee I'd ignored the glares from Frankie and Tommy and pointed out that she not only had two sons to give her grandkids here in Boston but they could pass on the Rizzoli name. When she asked what I meant, I'd shrugged and told her that I'd probably end up Jane Isles when we got married, so it was up to the boys to carry on the name. I hadn't missed Maura's sudden head turn when she heard me, but I was too busy dealing with Ma right them to talk about it.

Ma was off and running on the whole marriage thing which had happily wound on for another half hour, the guys were smiling at getting off the hook over the kids thing, until I reminded Ma that she could happily arrange their weddings, when they got off their asses and found a girl, which set her off hounding them again, much to their annoyance; if looks could kill...

That night after we'd gone to bed Maura had asked me about me taking her name, wanting to know if I was sure. When I told her I was, she surprised me by saying she'd really wanted to take mine, to be Maura Rizzoli.

In the end, after a halfhearted argument we'd decided to compromise, that one day we'd be Maura and Jane Rizzoli-Isles. I have to confess that by the end of that discussion there had been a lot of happy tears, before we found other things to keep us occupied.

Christmas Eve saw Maura and I running round, buying a few last minute presents but mostly getting the stuff we needed for tonight's massive Christmas dinner. We'd agreed that some people like Riley, Susie and Frost would need to be with their families tomorrow so we were hosting everyone tonight for a traditional Christmas roast dinner with all the trimmings, puddings, eggnog, the whole shebang.

Dinner was wonderful, it was nice to see so many happy people around the table, though both Maura and I had to stifle a few smiles as Frankie and Frost arranged to sit each side of Riley, while Tommy ended up sitting between Maura and Susie and was charming to both. I'd exchanged a look with Maura, we both knew the boys were going to be disappointed, Susie and Riley were used to playing it straight in public but they were going home together.

I looked over at Korsak sitting next to Ma, seeing him smirking at Frost and Frankie, I was going to dismiss it until he caught me watching them and gave me a smile and wink, making me wonder if he knew a lot more than he was letting on. It could be, Korsak saw a lot more than he let on.

The food was wonderful; the company great but there was a tinge of sadness, we all knew that this was probably going to be our last Christmas here in Boston like this, maybe forever. This time next year we would be in LA and hopefully hosting Christmas for friends and family out there.

We'd handed out presents and got presents in return, but the important thing was that we were here, surrounded by the people who loved us. It was bittersweet, Maura had told me she could feel one door closing behind us as another opened ahead and I knew exactly what she meant.

After everyone had left, Maura and I banished Ma off to the guest house, leaving us to cuddle in front of the fireplace. If there was one thing I was going to really miss about this place, it was going to be that fireplace. We'd created a lot of amazing memories in front of it in the time since we'd first got together and tonight was no exception.

We made slow, unhurried love, lit by the glow of the flames, as I fell even more in love with Maura all over again. I lost myself in her eyes, reflecting the glint of the fireplace and the love she had for me, knowing she could see the same in mine, as we came together in a series of gentle rolling waves, wrapped in each other's arms.

Afterwards we just held each other as the sweat dried on us, barely talking, we didn't have to really, until the night's chill finally penetrated the warm haze we were lost in and we made our way up to bed, where we'd snuggled together until we fell asleep in each others arms.

Christmas morning saw a blanket of snow outside, leaving the world quiet and peaceful and beautiful. We'd refused to get out of bed, just cuddling under the covers, before we'd ducked downstairs to bring our presents back to each other.

I'd got Maura Grand Circle tickets to the LA Opera's 2013 production of Tosca, two sets of white doctor's coats with her name monogrammed on the breast, a cool mint garter skirt and matching bra from Victoria's Secret's Very Sexy line that I just knew would be perfect on her, plus a set of Japanese language DVDs.

Maura had decided that she wanted to visit Japan late next year or early the following and wanted to learn Japanese first. The reaction I'd got had pretty much made my day, she'd loved it all and promised that she'd wear the lingerie for me tonight, leaving me smiling happily in anticipation.

My presents were so Maura, they were thoughtful and surprising and things I'd not have thought to have got myself, but just perfect.

She'd got me a DVD set of the Patriots successful 2004 Superbowl campaign and the Red Sox 2004 World Series win (the first time a single city had ever had both the World Series and the Superbowl in the same year), a new Glock cleaning and service kit and a set of black lingerie from Agent Provocateur, a corset, garter belt, thong and stockings, all in black silk that she told me she couldn't wait to see me in tonight.

The final present was the one that broke my heart though; a platinum ankle chain with a tiny heart inscribed '_Yours forever, M_'.

I don't know why, but that did it for me, the tears just ran down my face, I cried tears of happiness and joy and sadness and loss, as we sat in a beautiful house that wasn't really our home anymore, my home was with Maura, wherever we may be.

**Cheyenne. Wyoming**

Ana always enjoys the trip to our parent's place, we fly in on Frontier airlines to Denver and she loves the ads they have with the animals on the tails. Flying on the same aircraft that she's seen on the ads is a real kick for her; sometimes I think she's just a big kid under that kick-ass FBI agent exterior.

We've previously flown with Larry the Lynx, Griswold the Grizzly and Flip the Dolphin, this time it was the barber shop quartet penguins, Ana was so happy I had to laugh and tease her, getting a tongue poked out at me in return; yep, a big kid.

Dad picked us up from Denver airport where we were quite thoroughly kissed and hugged, before we piled into the Jeep and headed north for the Wyoming border and the farm. The drive passed quickly as we caught up on what was going on and dad asked us about life in Los Angeles. Ana had the front seat while I sat in the middle of the back seat, leaning forward as our words tumbled over one another, laughing like idiots in the sheer joy of being home.

As we turned off Interstate 25 onto Chalk Bluff Road and made our way towards the farm, I noticed that the west ridge was sporting a new crop of wind turbines. When people asked what my folks farmed I'd once told them wheat and cattle, it was still kinda true, but more and more it was wind energy. Wyoming was a windy place at the best of times and our farm was full of ridges and valleys, perfect for wind turbine farms.

Mom and dad had agreed to lease the first piece of land to the clean energy people three years ago with the first turbines going up not long afterwards. Now our cattle grazed between the towers while the turbines converted wind into electricity, feeding the power grid. The towers on the west ridge were new though, obviously mom and dad had decided there was money to be made in working with the wind people.

We pulled up in front of the house, mom and Lauren walking out onto the porch as we stopped, Ana and I piled out of the car to run up the steps, burying ourselves in welcoming hugs from them both as dad joined us. Peter and Christie were in their late 50s but still fit and healthy, originally of German descent, both had the tall, slim build, blonde hair and blue eyes that Lauren and I had inherited.

I swrapped to a hug with Lauren as Ana enthusiastically wrapped mom in a huge bear hug, one she happily returned, I could see the hint of tears in mom's eyes and I knew there'd be some in Ana's as well, sure as hell there was in mine. It'd been too long since we'd seen them; damn it was good to be home.

Lauren was if anything even prettier than I remembered, she'd let her hair grow out, now it was as long as mine and even thicker. I'd always felt a little jealous, I thought she was the prettier but she just laughed whenever I'd complained, telling me she thought I was the pretty one.

Ana had solved the debate one drunken night when we'd put her on the spot, demanding to know which of us was prettier. She'd tried to wriggle out of it by saying I was a sunrise and Lauren was a sunset, both very different but both beautiful. When we'd demanded a choice she'd shrugged and said that as far as she was concerned we were equally beautiful and if she'd met us together for the first time, she'd want to do us both. That had led to a wild tickle fight that had left us all sore and sorry from laughing so hard. We'd never felt the need to ask again.

Two years younger, Lauren and I had been called 'double trouble' when we'd been in our late teens and early twenties, mostly by the boys but also by some of the girls who'd been jealous of the attention we'd got as we'd grown out of the awkward teenager stage and started to fill out.

Now she was a rehabilitation therapist, working with people who'd been injured, helping get their lives back together again. She did a lot of work at Walter Reed with soldiers who'd been injured in Afghanistan and Iraq, helping them reintegrate back into society. She was a much better person than me; no way could I do her job, dealing with what she did day in, day out. I was sure that for many of those broken soldiers, having someone as pretty as Lauren working with them was as important for healing their spirits as her work was for mending their bodies.

We'd ended up sitting around the fireplace, drinking hot chocolate, Lauren and I had dad sandwiched on one lounge, snuggled up close, while Ana was curled up on the other lounge with mom, since her dad had died we really were her family and I'd heard mom and dad talking about her to other people as proudly and possessively as they did Lauren and me, she was their third daughter.

We chatted for hours, about our life in LA, Lauren's in Maryland, just outside Washington DC, what people we grew up with in Cheyenne had been doing, just glad to be home. Finally we'd had a delicious home-cooked dinner and fallen asleep in the big double bed in our room, exhausted from the travel and the emotion but just so happy to be home.

The following day we'd all gone into Cheyenne, shopping for provisions for Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas lunch, it was our tradition that we'd cook the Christmas meals, that mom and dad would get to sit back and relax and just enjoy having the house full of life and sounds, helping to make up for the fact that we'd moved away following our careers.

We'd met up with some friends from school and college while shopping, getting the usual invitations to parties and such, we normally only accepted one or maybe two each year if we had time, preferring to spend the time at home with our parents.

We ended up joining Lauren at an old school friend's place for a cook out on Saturday night; we'd had a good time, catching up with people around a raging bonfire, enjoying the chance to relax.

Most people we grew up with were ok about me being with Ana, but one year some idiot decided to make a scene, calling us 'filthy, unnatural dykes'. Before any of the guys could do anything, Ana had vaulted a table and had him flat on his face, arm twisted up his back.

She'd forced him to apologise to me, before dragging him outside and telling him to take a swing if he was man enough. He'd proved how stupid he was by taking up her invitation and getting his ass kicked severely before two guys at the party who were off-duty Deputy Sheriffs ran him off after she'd finished with him; we hadn't had any problems since.

On Christmas Eve we stayed at home, just enjoying being home with mom and dad, they were having a long running argument about where they should go for a holiday, they'd been discussing it for months, both researching and trying to convince the other of which holiday they should choose.

Dad wanted to visit Europe; to experience the culture, the history and the scenery of places like London, Paris, Rome, Vienna and Moscow, while mom was equally set on a safari through Africa; visiting places she'd seen on TV, such as the Masai Mara game reserve in Kenya, Victoria Falls, Mount Kilimanjaro and the gorillas in the mist. Both of them tried to enlist all three of us into convincing the other, but we'd happily left them to work it out, though we did occasionally add a supporting word to both sides of the argument, much to their annoyance.

We'd worked through the afternoon, making a traditional roast dinner with apple pie for dessert, well Ana and Lauren had, they were the cook's. I'd been relegated to manual labour and some of the simple stuff like potato peeling and rolling out the pastry for tonight's pie and tomorrow's savoury mince tarts. I didn't mind though, I knew the meals tonight and tomorrow were going to be something else, it always was when Ana set her mind to it.

It was like it was Ana's annual personal thank you gift to our parents for so totally accepting her into the family and for loving us being together.

Dinner was lovely, we'd had a great meal, full of great food and laughter and jokes, before we'd all turned to into the kitchen to wash up. Neither Peter nor Christie believed in having a dishwasher, both were of the 'hard work never killed anyone' school of thought, so we'd washed up and dried everything by hand just like we had growing up, while they stood by and chatted, the kitchen crowded and happy.

Afterwards we'd ended up back in front of the fire, just talking, before I'd brought up the extra wind turbines on the west ridge. It'd turned into a long talk about the future of the farm, with mom and dad telling us that they understood that none of their three girls was going to become a farmer, which is why they had agreed to lease the farmland out for the wind farms.

It had already been agreed that most of the farm would eventually end up being wind farms; they were setting it up so that the place would provide an income stream even after they were gone. We'd been left stunned, partly at what they'd said, but mostly at the thought of them being gone, they were both fit and healthy, to even contemplate them being dead…

I'd felt the tears in my eyes, seeing them in Lauren and Ana's too as mom and dad explained that they were getting older and they wouldn't feel right if they didn't do everything they could to look after the three of us after they were gone. We'd all ended up bawling our eyes out, wrapped in a huddle around them, three grown women behaving like children, contemplating a future none of us wanted to imagine, especially not on Christmas Eve.

To calm us down they told us they just wanted to be prepared, but they planned on being round for many years to come. Besides, they had too many things to look forward to, like seeing their daughters married off and grandkids in due course. That had led to some teasing about when we were going to stop living in sin as they jokingly put it and when Lauren was going to find someone to settle down with. After much joking around they'd filled us with hot chocolate and marshmallows, before they shooed us off to bed, telling us that we'd open our presents in the morning.

That night, in a recent tradition, Lauren climbed into her pyjamas before snuggling into bed with us. She'd started it two years ago, after complaining how Ana and I'd kept her up all Christmas Eve the previous year making love for hours. Lauren had been on the other side of the wall and heard it all, now she claimed sleeping with us was the only way to make us behave and for her to get a good night's sleep.

I didn't mind really, it reminded me of when we'd slept together as kids, the two of us huddling under the blankets with a torch, keeping the monsters under the bed at bay as seven and five year olds. We'd slept together regularly until I'd moved out. I even agreed to wearing pyjamas and foregoing making love to Ana to have her with us.

Ana had just smiled, telling me that if cuddling up to one Dearing was wonderful, having two was pure bliss. We chatted sleepily for a while, before we spooned together and dropped off to sleep, a feeling of peace wrapped around me. The last thing I remember was the door opening quietly as mom and dad peered in to watch over us for a moment, before they too made their way to bed.

Christmas Day dawned cold and clear, with a chill wind whistling round the windows, it made us slow to get out of bed and ensured we'd stay close to the fireplace today. I woke up first to find that we'd nearly smothered Ana, Lauren and I were sprawled all over the top of her, my head on her shoulder, Lauren's buried in her neck as we snuggled in tight.

Mom and dad finally dragged us out of bed round eight and we trooped down to the living room in pyjamas to open presents. The fireplace was already roaring and together with more of mom's hot chocolate we'd felt warm inside and out as we spent the next hour each opening a present in turn, just happy to be together. We'd agreed that we would each buy the others no more than one major present, so Ana got a white, red and yellow gold necklace, expensive but so beautiful I just had to see her wearing it the moment I saw it, while Ana had got me the latest iPad, with some of my favourite software already installed.

Lauren got a matching set of opal earrings and necklace from us both, dad got the nine disc complete Star Wars Blu-Ray boxed set signed by Harrison Ford and George Lucas, where Lauren got that I had no idea and we'd got mom a new iPod full of every 80s track we could find. Ana had spent a couple of weeks downloading songs for her, but the look on her face was worth it all.

There were lots and lots of other small presents but the best present was just being home, wrapped up in family, god I'd missed this. As we got dressed before going to church for the Christmas service, Ana and I agreed that we'd swap our personal presents tonight, we'd bought each other lingerie and we'd have a private showing after dinner.

After we got back from church, we turned to making lunch, leaving us pleasantly full, before I pulled out my iPad and Skyped Maura and Jane in Boston, catching them just before dinner there. We chatted for a while and I introduced them to Lauren and mom and dad, before we ended up in a three-way Skype chat with Alex and Olivia up at Alex's family's place.

Afterwards everyone had a pile of questions about them, which we explained over a lazy afternoon, before mom and dad headed off for a nap, leaving Lauren and us to talk.

She wanted to know how everything was going for us in LA, were we happy, was it good and was it better than Seattle. We'd happily told her things couldn't be better and asked her about her love life, it turned out she was seeing a guy but it wasn't serious, he was fun but not happily ever after material. Lauren had no end of interested suitors, but no one that had been the one she was waiting for. I felt so sorry for her, she wanted what I had; an amazing person who made me complete, it made me realise all over again just how lucky I'd been to find Ana.

We finally drew the curtain down on Christmas Day with a relatively early night, it had been a long but happy day filled with family. Mom and dad had wrapped us in their big blanket of love, they'd taken the time to sit down separately with each of us at different times since we arrived, telling us how they enjoyed having us home for Christmas, how proud they were of us and most of all how much they loved us.

As we fell asleep, hot and sweaty and very satisfied after rocking ourselves to a series of slow, gentle climaxes in each others arms, trying to be quiet in deference to Lauren in the next room, I had to smile.

No matter whatever the next year might bring, in Ana's arms everything was going to all right.


	99. Chapter 99

**Christmas II**

Brenda's viewpoint

Christmas had been a rolled gold disaster. Between my being in Atlanta where my parents were badgering me about the break-up of my marriage and my approaching spinsterhood on one hand and the fact that Sharon was with her family in Miami on the other, I'd been frankly miserable.

When daddy suggested that I should try a reconciliation with Fritz I'd kinda lost it, telling them both that if they thought getting back together with a man who'd spent the last year of our marriage emotionally blackmailing me to give up my career and be a good stay-at-home Stepford Wife popping out kids was a good idea, they didn't understand me at all.

I'd spent over an hour on the phone with Sharon that afternoon; I just needed to hear her voice after a miserable day. She'd ended up making me laugh at everything, for a while I could forget my parents, my ex an all and just enjoy chatting to my girlfriend, happy and content.

I'd gone back inside from where I'd sat at the back of the yard under the old cedar tree, to find myself on the end of a parental inquisition. Who was that, was it a man, what did they do, how did I meet him, was it serious, when would they meet him, the questions wouldn't stop coming. For a moment I'd had a taste of what it must be like for the people I interrogate, before I took the option they don't have and got up and walked out.

Dinner had been tense, with daddy ragging me for what'd happened with Fritz, telling me I'd turned my back on a good man and practically blaming everything on me until I'd lost it, telling him if he was so damned keen on Fritz why didn't her adopt him, then he could be part of the family without me having to be married to the man. Momma had started as well; suggesting that if we tried to get back together things might be different. I'd rounded on her and told her the only thing I was looking forward to getting together with Fritz for was sitting down across a table with the divorce lawyers and making it final.

I'd ended up fleeing the table with tears in my eyes. All my parents wanted was for me to go back to living the lie that had been the last year of my marriage, they couldn't see that I'd been miserable then and that they were making me miserable now. I spent the next few hours on the phone changing flights back to LA; I had to get out of here.

I woke up to an overcast Saturday morning and I knew I'd made the right decision, telling momma and daddy I'd been called back to LA to deal with a case; it was a lie, one they certainly knew but I didn't care. If I didn't get out of there I was likely to say or do something that we'd all regret, better to get out and deal with their disappointment than stay and make things worse.

Changing the flight to get back to LA early had cost a fortune but I considered it money well spent. I caught a cab to the airport and spent the last two hours in Atlanta sitting in a coffee shop there catching up with my niece Charlie. She'd grown up a lot in the 18 months since she'd last been in LA and it was good to talk to her.

She'd been sympathetic to my decision to leave, telling me that she'd actually been surprised I'd come, all things considered. I'd shrugged, telling her I didn't think that it was going to be as bad as it was. She'd just laughed and told me that for a detective I was pretty clueless, before asking if I'd met anyone new. I'd smiled and told her that yes; I was seeing someone and they were very special.

She'd got all excited and asked me about them so I told her that they worked at the LAPD, they were smart and wonderful and caring and that they understood me better than anyone I knew. The thing that made it special was that they understood how important my job was to me and how they didn't try and change me, they liked me the way I was and I wanted them the way they were, I didn't want them to change either.

Charlie had smiled and said they sounded like a keeper, something I'd happily agreed with. She looked at me closely and asked why I was in Atlanta rather with them, when I obviously loved them. I'd hummed and hawed, saying it was too early to be talking love, we'd only been together for two months, but she'd smiled at me and said I was kidding myself if the look on my face was anything to go by.

Eventually my flight was called and after promising Charlie she could come out and visit during her next holidays I made my way into the squishy, sweaty confines of a coach class flight.

Five hours later and I was back in my welcoming but empty apartment, in fact with Sharon in Miami, Maura and Jane in Boston and Natalie and Ana out in Wyoming I could feel the empty sense of loneliness hanging round me like a shroud. It was strange, for years I'd been used to being single and alone, now I'd become one of those people who needed their friends. It surprised me how much I'd changed in recent months, especially since Sharon had altered everything.

Thinking about Sharon led to me calling her, explaining I'd taken the coward's way out and fled Atlanta but she was very supportive, explaining that her trip to Miami was a little stressful as well.

Heather was fine and her new boyfriend Steve seemed like a great guy, he was the owner of a charter boat operation and they'd hit it off really well; the problem was Lucas' new girlfriend. Kim was a pediatric intern at the same hospital in Cleveland where Lucas was completing his cardio-thoracic residency, next year he'd be the one leading teams cracking open people's chests.

Kim was a pretty little Asian girl; Sharon had first thought she'd been shy and that she'd somehow intimidated her. I just hooted with laughter, reminding Sharon she scared some of the toughest cops in the LAPD, a little doctor from Cleveland didn't stand a chance. She'd laughed in response, before sobering and explaining that she had watched Kim and eventually worked out she wasn't comfortable with Sharon, especially when the subject of her girlfriend came up.

Sharon had been quite open with her kids; they knew Sharon had previously had a girlfriend, so they weren't fazed by the fact that their mom was seeing another woman.

In fact after seeing photos of us together Lucas had joked that the legendary Raydor charm must be working as she'd managed to catch a prize. I'd laughed and commented that they didn't know me at all but Sharon just told me she agreed with them, I was a prize worth having. I'd felt my cheeks burning at her words and choked a little.

Sharon must have picked up on it as she changed the subject back to Kim. She'd worked out that Kim got very uncomfortable when the subject turned to anything like Sharon being gay or having a girlfriend. Quizzing Lucas it turned out Kim was from a really religious, socially conservative background, they didn't believe in sex before marriage, let alone gays.

I'd rolled my eyes, asking how anyone could still believe in no sex before marriage in this day and age. Sharon had agreed, she'd told Lucas that if he hadn't slept with her he should, if they couldn't be open and honest with each other in bed, then they couldn't anywhere else.

I'd kinda sniggered at the idea of Sharon by-the-book Raydor suggesting someone else should break the rules but in the end I'd agreed with her, it may sound kinda harsh but Lucas needed to 'try before buy' with Kim. Finding out that you weren't compatible in bed with someone you really liked was always sad, finding out after getting married was a tragedy.

Sharon had explained she was going to have that chat with Lucas the following day, when Heather was going to take Kim out shopping, leaving her alone with him. I just asked her to take it easy on him; he obviously cared enough for her to forego sex, which was a pretty big deal for a young guy. Sharon had promised and we ended up chatting for another forty minutes before we reluctantly finished the call.

That afternoon found me bored, with nothing to do I'd pottered around, but my washing was mostly done, the fridge full (Sharon's influence), the place was clean (again thanks to Sharon) and there was nothing on except cheesy Christmas specials. Eventually the emptiness got to me and I piled into my car and headed down to the office, finding the place quiet but my desk full of files, so I spent the rest of the day getting paperwork done.

I wanted to make sure there was nothing hanging over my head when Sharon got back, no distractions from spending time with her, I couldn't stop the criminals of LA from messing up my plans but I was going to make damned sure that no paperwork was going to stand between Sharon and me.

I got a call late in the afternoon from momma, I'd told her I'd had a good flight and I was back in my office, she didn't believe me, all but saying I'd run back to LA to be with someone that I wouldn't tell her about. I got annoyed, told her she was being silly and to ring me on the office phone before I hung up on her. Thirty seconds later the office phone rang and I got a very sheepish voice on the other end when I answered with 'hello momma'.

I explained that I was in my office, completing work on a case and that I'd be working late. She started to tell me that was one of the problems I'd had with Fritz, before deciding to leave that subject alone. Eventually the call had stumbled to an end, leaving me free to complete a goodly pile of paperwork before calling it quits around 10.30 that night.

Christmas Eve was strange, quiet and a bit lonely, I'd brought the rest of my work home and was sitting in my pyjamas working on the lounge when I got a text from Sharon wishing me a good morning. We'd texted back and forth for a while before she let me know she was going to have 'The Talk' with Lucas. I'd just wished her luck and got back to work, though I was pretty distracted.

Eventually Sharon rang, telling me that her discussion had been a bit tense, Lucas had got a bit defensive but they'd eventually talked it through and the ball was now in his court. We ended up chatting for almost an hour, talking bout everything and nothing, it was just calming to hear her voice.

The rest of the day was spent working, before I rang Sharon about seven her time, wishing her a Merry Christmas Eve and telling her how much I missed her. She'd just laughed and told me I was just bored and wanted her to come back and distract her. I'd told her she was the best distraction I could think of and I was looking forward to being very distracted when she got back.

Christmas day was kinda blue, all alone in LA, feeling a little sorry for myself and missing Sharon terribly. When had I become such a clingy, needy cliche? I sent her a Merry Christmas text early and got one back, then got a call from momma, she'd kinda laid on the guilt trip for me running away to LA but it wasn't working, I'd rather be lonely and sad in Los Angeles than miserable and bitter in Atlanta.

I was expecting a call from Sharon but I hadn't had one yet. I was reluctant to call because she was spending the day with her family and I didn't feel like I had the right to intrude on that. Eventually I'd caved and rang, but the call went to voicemail. I tried a few times over the next few hours but each time I got her voicemail. I was thinking through all the reasons she wasn't answering, from being busy with her kids, to not wanting to talk to me, to a flat battery to something dreadful happening.

I was starting to work myself into a real tiz when the rattle of a key in the door set my heart racing, only one person had that key, with a bound I was off the sofa and into Sharon's arms as she stood there in the doorway, looking tired but beautiful.

I finally stopped kissing her long enough for her to ask if we might be able to move our reunion out of the hallway somewhere less public as I blushed in embarrassment, grabbing her bag and pulling it inside and practically dragging her onto the sofa where I launched into another round of kissing.

When we finally came up for air, she explained that she'd spent Christmas morning with her kids but the thought of me being all alone on Christmas Day had made up her mind and she'd jumped on a plane and flown home early to be with me. I kept interrupting her, tears running down my face, to show her just how much I appreciated her being there.

Finally I realised how tired she looked, so I hauled her into the shower and gave her a soothing wash, right down to shampooing and conditioning her hair, before toweling her off and dragging her to bed, where we cuddled for a while before she fell asleep in my arms.

I just lay there, feeling her there in my arms, full to bursting with all I felt for her, Sharon had flown right across the country so I wouldn't be alone at Christmas, I was so full of every possible emotion, just lying there holding her, watching her sleep left me with a goofy smile on my face.

Sharon slept for about two hours, finally waking as I watched, I'd noticed the little twitches and noises she made when she was waking up and was smiling when she opened her eyes. We lay there for a while, just kissing and cuddling, before I remembered that I still hadn't given Sharon her Christmas present, we'd agreed to exchange presents when we got back so now was as good a time as any.

Coaxing her up out of bed against her protests we moved back into the lounge where I grabbed her present from the dining table as Sharon fumbled through her carry on to find mine; Sharon and I had agreed that we would buy each other only one expensive present each.

I carefully handed over her present, I was nervous as anything, hopeful she'd like it. Carefully undoing the fancy wrapping her eyebrows shot up on seeing the Longines name on the box before opening it to see the Dolce Vita Diamond ladies watch nestled inside the silk lining.

I told her that I'd been out shopping before Christmas when I saw a Longines poster of this stunning Indian actress wearing the very same watch and how her eyes had reminded me of Sharon's and how I just had to get it for her and how I hoped she liked it and I'd kept the receipt and she could change it if she didn't like it and before I knew it Sharon's smile had left me stuck dumb.

Sharon looked at me and her smile widened, as she leaned in and kissed me, stealing my breath away before eventually pulling back; telling me how much she loved it. I'd practically cried in relief, as my girlfriend told me she loved it and would wear it right then and there.

It looked lovely on her, modern and stylish and beautiful and perfectly Sharon, it had cost a small fortune but it put an honest to god smile on Sharon's face, so it was worth every cent and more.

In return Sharon handed over a small rectangular present, wrapped in a beautiful purple and gold wrapping, she pointed out it was wrapped like origami, tightly wrapped but if you lifted one tab it all fell apart; I did as she indicated and the paper fell away, bringing a huge smile as the little child in me delighted in how it all fitted together.

Inside was a small flat leather box containing the most gorgeous, delicate gold chain with a diamond solitaire nestled in a pendant setting, understated but truly stunning and amazingly beautiful, it took my breath away.

Looking up into her eyes I'd seen the same feeling there that I felt. We didn't need words, I just reached out and pulled her to me and kissed her like we'd never stop. When finally we'd broken for air, I'd fallen into her lambent green eyes as she lifted the necklace out of its box and unclasped it, before reaching around and placing it round my neck.

Finishing, we sat there, facing each other, both of us struggling with everything we wanted to say, before I leaned in and kissed her, slow and soft and gentle, trying to put everything I felt into it.

Finally pulling back I looked down at the beautiful necklace hanging round my neck and all that it symbolised and I knew the time was right.

I looked back up at her and smiled, seeing the happiness in her eyes and said the three words I'd wanted to say for weeks,

"I love you Sharon" As I stared, biting my lip, tears started flowing down her cheeks before she smiled and reached her hands out to hold my face between her palms.

"I love you Brenda" I could feel my own tears falling as she leaned in and kissed me, as we lost ourselves in each other.

I don't recall much else of Christmas Day after that, it's still just a haze of love and joy but I'll never forget the moment when I looked into her eyes and said "I love you" and heard her say those wonderful words back to me, making me soar.

Best. Christmas. Ever.


	100. Chapter 100

**New Year's Eve**

Jane's viewpoint

Everyone was back in LA by the 30th as we'd arranged to spend New Year's Eve together. They didn't know what we'd planned; even I was a little hazy on the exact specifics up until the night before, when Maura had finally spelled out everything we were doing.

She'd organised for us to be at a place in Santa Monica, we'd be partying there from around seven and everyone was staying overnight at the hotel it was part of, the Viceroy. She'd arranged it all, food, drink, accommodation, everything. There was going to be dancing, a DJ playing the hours leading up to midnight and after, plenty of other people partying too but in a place that was a little exclusive, there'd be no gate crashers at this party, only registered guests.

I was relieved as it meant that my plans would work out as well, the fewer people there the better. Alex and Liv had arrived early in the day and I'd picked them up from LAX, joking that they just couldn't stay away. Alex had laughed and blamed my 'magnetic' personality, before sobering and mentioning that it was Liv who had insisted that they make the trip back so soon. I just smiled and told them we were all glad to have them back, before driving them back to our place.

Maura and Alex had happily fallen into each other's arms; after reconnecting they'd been if anything even closer, Skyping back and forward several times a week. Earlier in the week I'd seen her chatting online as I wandered past and stepped up behind her to say hi, to find that Maura was Skyping not only with Alex but with Natalie too, those three really had ended up as thick as thieves.

While they were catching up in the kitchen, Liv stepped up beside me and spoke in a low voice.

"It took a lot of convincing to arrange this Jane, you owe me" I just smirked at that.

"Difficult convincing Alex to spend time with Maura and Nat; I call BS on that one Liv" She shrugged and then smiled.

"It was worth a try. So what's the plan for tonight?" I shook my head.

"Maura's planned all of this and she wants it to be a surprise" Liv just looked at me and lowered her voice even more.

"And what about what you've got planned?"

"That's gonna be a surprise too, but thanks for being here" I got a hard look.

"You're not going to tell me, even after arranging for us to both be here?" I shook my head.

"Nope, can't. I need to kinda wing it; don't want to over think it. I'll know it when the time's right. Just keep Maura occupied if I start getting antsy ok?" In the face of her probing I clammed up, instead wandering out to join Maura and Alex.

Three hours later we were picked up by a town car and transported to the Viceroy Hotel out in Santa Monica, where we were checked in and escorted to our rooms, the Emperor Suites. They were nice, a huge comfy bed and big bathrooms with roomy showers, the two most important things in a hotel room I've decided; when staying anywhere with Maura both tend to get lots of use. I looked around, realising that the prices for this place must be huge, let alone on New Year's Eve, but I decided that this was Maura's night, if she wanted to spend money making tonight something special there was no way I was going to object, not tonight.

We got texts from Nat and Sharon, letting us know that they had arrived and checked in and would meet us downstairs in the 'event space' at 7.30; both also commented on their suites as well. I had a quick shower and got dressed, I wanted to be comfortable, but not upset Maura who wanted to have a big night, so I wore the black silk slacks from the suit she'd bought me, teamed it with a brand new deep crimson silk wrap blouse that we'd got the last time she'd dragged me out shopping and a pair of black two inch heels. Maura loved me in the Laboutine's but my feet hurt just thinking about five or six hours standing and dancing on concrete on them, so not tonight.

I was standing there, idly looking out at the last rays of the sun dropping into the Pacific when I caught Maura's reflection in the window glass as she stepped out of the bathroom, making me turn to take her in. I don't know how that woman does it, but every time I think I can't see her looking any better she somehow tops it.

Tonight she was wearing a Dior dress she'd picked up when shopping with Nat and Alex a few weeks back when they were visiting, it was all black and powder satin and organza she'd told me, tight across her breasts and loosely flowing around her legs. I thought it looked stunning, it left her shoulders bare and her hair spilled down over them, she looked young and fresh and beautiful, on a pair of matching black and white spiked heels she was breathtaking.

"Do I look good enough to be seen out in public Jane?" I picked my eyes up from once again admiring her legs to see her gentle smile, her eyes sparkling with merriment. Feigning nonchalance I leaned back against the window and slid one hand into my pants pocket.

"Yeah, I think I'd be willing to be seen out with you" She sauntered over towards me, the tips of her mouth twitching upwards.

"Oh good; I was afraid that you might not want to be seen with me, so I would have to go out all alone. I feared I might find myself with no one to dance with to see the New Year in" I smiled as I levered myself off the glass and took a step towards her.

"Oh, I'm sure someone would have taken pity on a fashion disaster like you" She stood in front of me; our eyes almost level on her five inch heels, humour dancing in her eyes.

"I suppose I could have asked Anastasia or Olivia to dance, but I did rather have my heart set on dancing with you" I leaned in towards her as her hand came up to my cheek, feeling her warmth through my skin, making me smile.

"Far be it for me to break your heart then" Her lips were warm and her caress soft as we kissed, just drawing it out as our arms slid around each other. I slid my hand down and ran it up her thigh, before lifting it to squeeze her butt gently. For a second she deepened the kiss before wheeling away, just a little flushed. Turning back to me she laughed.

"No Jane, we are not doing anything right now. Do you know how long it took me to get ready?" I grinned.

"One hour twenty two minutes from a standing start, if you count the shower, which you wouldn't let me take with you" I pushed my lip out in a pout, to no avail. Her laughter was quick and light.

"If I had showered with you Jane, we would probably still be there" I took a step towards her, my smile as innocent as I could make it, which probably wasn't very much right now.

"And what's wrong with that?" Her eyes narrowed as she watched me advance on her.

"Normally nothing, however tonight we have people waiting on us" I took another step forward.

"So let them wait" Maura got a speculative look on her face and I thought I was going to get lucky, before she stepped back and shook her head.

"No Jane, after midnight, then yes" I growled; dreadful teasing woman.

"What if I don't want to wait until then?" She turned, strolling over to pick up her matching clutch, before glancing over her shoulder and smiling wickedly.

"Jane, I promise I will make it worth your while to wait" I winked.

"Promise?" She smiled for a moment then winked back making me grin.

"I promise"

Arriving downstairs we met up with Alex and Liv at the entrance to the celebrations area. Laid out in front of us was a series of semi-private cabanas, each with lounges, chairs and a dining table, all facing a large central paved patio area. Everything was done up in white, right down to the covers of the chairs, in the light of the torches around the patio they almost glowed, it looked a bit like a scene from a James Bond movie.

As we stood behind a group waiting to be seated, we were joined by Sharon and Brenda, as hugs and kisses were exchanged all round, they looked good, Sharon in a dark grey / silver dress with a set of strappy heels, Brenda in a tight red dress that showed off her curves and a familiar pair of red heels. I could see a few patrons eyeing us up, we all looked good.

Alex was in a deep purple and white dress that showed off her legs, while Liv had worn black pants and a deep green button down top. Even compared to Ana and me, Liv was definitely the least 'girly' of the lot of us but given where she works in SVU that's understandable.

Maura gave our name to reception and we were immediately shown through to the largest of the cabanas. It had a large table for eight at the back, lots of small bowls filled with all sorts of nibbles and it was filled with comfy white leather lounges up front, with plenty of open space in front for dancing.

No sooner had we sat down when Natalie and Ana arrived, Nat dragging Ana along behind her laughing. Nat was wearing a burgundy dress that ended a few inches above the knee, it highlighted her legs and was tailor made for dancing while Ana was wearing deep blue loose silk pants and a matching top that looked a little like something out of the Arabian Nights, all rich and luxurious over a set of heels, she looked exotic and lovely.

"Sorry we were late, we were distracted" I looked them over, my eyebrow lifting as I noticed Natalie's lipstick was a little smudged and Ana's hair was mussed. Before I could say anything Sharon reached out and handed a napkin and a compact from her clutch to Natalie, who looked a little confused.

"What's that for?" Brenda leaned forward and smiled.

"To clean up the scene of the crime" I watched them both colour as we laughed, seeing Maura glance at me from the corner of her eye, I knew exactly what she was thinking, that could just as easily have been us.

While they cleaned each other up, a female waiter arrived, she introduced herself as Michelle and told us that she'd be our dedicated waiter tonight, before taking our drinks orders, with beers, champaign and wine all round, as we settled in for what was certain to be a good night.

In fact I was wrong, the night wasn't good, it was great. Everyone was having a fantastic time; we laughed, danced, ate, drank and generally had an amazing night. At one stage all four couples were swapping dance partners on the area outside our cabana, I was watching Alex and Brenda dancing a waltz together, I knew Brenda was good, very good, I'd seen that at the Ball, but I didn't know Alex had done ballroom dancing, together out the front of our cabana they were the centre of lots of attention. They looked good enough to do the whole "dancing with the stars' thing.

I turned to see Liv standing there, a little entranced and a little wistful.

"Hey Liv, you OK?" She turned slightly and smiled.

"Yeah, just enjoying watching her dance" I nodded.

"You don't dance like that?"

"No, not my thing, I kinda missed that bit of my education" I sighed gently, remembering just how hard Liv's upbringing had been.

Ana had grown up an Army brat after losing her mom, Maura's childhood had been a very lonely one but Liv's... hers had been one full of drunken abuse from her alcoholic mother. When she should have been out doing normal kids stuff like dance and music classes, she'd either been looking after her mother as she came off a bender or trying to get by on whatever money hadn't already been spent on booze.

It had been hard and she'd missed out on a lot, fortunately her life had turned around since she got out and even more so since she and Alex had become more than friends. She now lived with someone who worshipped her, a feeling Liv returned with interest, she got to enjoy a better life, full of love and happiness and comfort and was much happier than she'd ever been before.

Given the life I had with Maura, I completely understood why. Turning, I looked round, looking for someone to dance with her, to bring her a little out of her shell. I was looking for Maura or Natalie but they were chatting with Ana, their backs to me, when my eyes locked with Sharon. She was watching Alex and Brenda, smiling happily, when she saw me looking at her.

Looking back, she raised an eyebrow, as I tilted my head fractionally towards Liv. For a moment she frowned, before realising what the expression Liv was wearing meant. With a smile and a nod she strolled over.

"They look good out there don't they?" Liv turned and smiled at Sharon's words.

"Yeah, Brenda's amazing, she's a fantastic dancer" Sharon's laughter was quick and rich.

"Don't tell her, I don't want her getting a big head about it" I smiled and nodded as Liv made a zip lips gesture. Sharon looked over at Liv. "Tell me Olivia, do you dance like that?" Liv's eyes widened.

"God no, nothing like that, club dancing's about the best I can do. I'm nothing like them"

"Well, seeing as my girlfriend's stolen yours, the least I can do is invite you to dance with me" Olivia turned, looking embarrassed.

"I couldn't, I have two left feet" Sharon's laugh was quick and rich.

"Excellent, I have two right feet, so we'll be perfect" She reached out and offered her hand. For a moment I was afraid Liv would decline, I could see the embarrassment in her eyes, the fear of looking silly. "It's OK Olivia, I'm not all that good so we'll be fine" I smiled, I'd seen Sharon on the dance floor at the Ball and she was far better than good. With a swallow Liv nodded and Sharon led her out onto the floor, where she helped Liv get set up and slowly led her through the preliminary steps of an abbreviated waltz.

"Nicely done Jane" I turned at Natalie's voice to find her standing close.

"How much of that did you catch?" She smiled; her eyes on Sharon and Liv as they slowly made their way through the basic steps.

"Enough. Y'know, under that hard-ass detective costume, you're pretty soft" I turned to object but her gentle smile just disarmed me. Before I could say anything, she looped her arm through mine and tugged me towards the others. "C'mon, I want to dance with you, you big softie" She led me out onto the paved area where the others were dancing and turned, grinning. "I'll even let you lead"

We slipped into a rythm, as I saw Maura and Ana join us, as we spun and swayed, over Natalie's shoulder I could see Liv, with a shy smile on her face as Sharon led her through a waltz. It was obvious that Liv was a novice but Sharon was nothing but encouraging, which was exactly what Liv needed. Alex saw them together and smiled happily before leaning close to Brenda and whispering something which made her laugh.

I'd noticed that Sharon and Brenda were if anything even closer tonight, they were practically joined at the hip, lots of smiles and long looks and constantly touching each other, little reassurances that the other was there and happy and content, it brought a smile to my face and I noticed I wasn't the only one to see it either. Seeing them together so happy, I chalked it up as another fantastic success in what had been the best year of my life. Hopefully, if all went well, I'd end it on an even better note.

We sat down to dinner around 8.30, a selection of hot and cold meats, seafood and salads; the food was great, the conversation and the company better. The night was full of laughter and teasing, everyone having a wonderful time, which was exactly what we'd expected, the people with us were really special and we loved having them here.

I was chatting to Natalie about handling the media; I'd run a mile from them back in Boston, give me a drug-crazed ganger any day, but she was telling me a few silly stories from the other side of the camera, making the media seem a little less scary, when I heard a Maura and Alex speaking, the change in their tone catching my attention immediately.

"I insist Maura; we really want to contribute tonight"

"Oh please Alex, there really is no need, it has all been taken care of"

"Like hell Maura, I asked about tonight's cost, Liv and I will not let you entertain us all without contributing"

"Please Alex, I really want you to be my guests, so please do not worry about it" Ana looked up from where she'd been sitting opposite and nodded.

"The suite's here normally run about $800 a night; they must be almost double that tonight, so we're paying for ours" Sharon leaned over as well.

"We'd also like to contribute as well Maura. It's not fair for you to carry the costs alone"

I knew this was expensive, but I had no idea how much, Maura had taken care of it all but I was doing the maths and it was adding up to a fairy sizeable figure even before the cost of the cabana, food and drinks. I still wasn't totally comfortable with spending large amounts of money, a hangover from my working class upbringing as the daughter of a plumber, but I wasn't going to not support Maura.

"Hey guys, it's ok, we wanted you here with us tonight and you're our guests" I got the evil eye from most of the people around the table before Alex spoke again.

"Maura, you have to let us contribute to the night, please" Maura was adamant, I could see it in the set of her shoulders, most people didn't realise that when she set her mind to it Maura could be as stubborn as me, maybe more so.

"No, I will not hear of it" Brenda leaned in as well.

"But Maura, we're here because we want to be, let us pay our way, please?"

"I said I will not hear of it Brenda, this is important to me" She stood up and took a step away from the table, before looking round to where we were sitting, watching. For a moment she bit her lip, before taking a big breath.

"For most of my life New Year's Eve was spent watching other people celebrating the night on television as I sat alone at home" She looked down at the floor for a moment as we watched, though my heart went out to her once more. Finally she looked up, her voice soft and hard to hear over the noise from outside.

"Now I have the people I care so deeply for here with me tonight, so I have something very special to celebrate" She looked across at me and smiled, before continuing, her voice stronger. "Tonight is for having a wonderful time with the people I love, together. That's worth more to me than any monetary amount"

I went to stand and pull her into a hug, but was beaten to it by Alex and Sharon, who'd been a bit closer. While they were occupied I felt a hand on my shoulder, turning to see Brenda standing there, her brown eyes shining.

"That's one hell of a woman you have there Jane, you're very lucky" I smiled at her before looking back at Maura.

"Don't I know it and I'm not the only one, we all are" I got a stunning smile in return and we stood there for a moment in a companionable silence as I looked around at everyone having a great time and thought it was as good a time as any.

Walking across to the table I grabbed a glass of Champaign for Maura and another for me and made my way over to her, handing one across and getting a quick kiss and a smile in return that made me melt.

Turning I wrapped my arm around her waist and looked around at our friends here with us tonight.

"Hey everyone, I've got a question for Brenda" I watched her head come up from where she was standing with Sharon, a question in her eyes. "Brenda, you said you'd like us to say here in LA when our secondment ends, I can't imagine why you'd want to keep us around, but if the offers still good, we'd like to take you up on it"

Brenda smiled that huge, happy smile and raised a glass, a laugh in her voice.

"Happy to have you stay Jane, as long as Maura's part of the deal. Do you know how hard it is to find a really great M.E. these days?" I just gave her the Rizzoli glare but it wasn't working tonight, she just laughed at me as Maura smiled.

"We'd both love to stay, if you will have us" Sharon smiled in return.

"Even if we didn't have a position for you, we'd find one"

I turned and reached out, snagging an arm around Alex and pulling her in to my side, then waving Liv over.

C'mon Benson, get your ass over here" Maura waved her over and slid her arm around Liv's waist as I did the same with Alex.

"Then it's agreed, we get to stay here in LA, which means Alex and Liv get to visit us lots" There was a cheer and a toast to that, as Alex leaned in to gave me a kiss on the cheek and Maura gave Liv one as well, before Sharon and Brenda came up to thank us for staying, as if it was any difficulty to stay here with friends.

The DJ swung into action not long after and the next few hours saw us out on the patio, dancing and partying hard, it was a night that we'd remember for a very long time, I knew if all went as well as I hoped we'd never forget it.

I stood there for a moment, just enjoying the buzz and the feeling of happiness, when I saw Michelle, our waiter, regarding me with a contemplative look on her face. I took a few steps over to where I could talk to her.

"What's up Michelle?" She looked startled.

"Oh, I'm sorry, its nothing" I raised an eyebrow.

"Michelle, your surrounded by cops, we notice things, it's our job" She looked like she was going to try and deflect again but I just smiled at her, as she caved.

"I was just wondering, you look like you've all been friends forever" I smiled.

"Maura and I have only known Olivia and Alex for just on a year, its only been a few months for Brenda and Sharon and Ana and Natalie" Her jaw dropped.

"Really, it seems like it's been a lot longer, the way you're all at ease with each other" I smiled even wider.

"They're special people, we're really lucky"

"Yeah, you really are"

"You have someone special for you?" She shrugged.

"No, I'm studying psychology; don't really have time for someone right now"

"Don't worry, when the time comes, you'll know"

"Was it like that for you?" I looked over at Maura, she was chuckling at something Brenda had said.

"Hell yeah, fell in love with my best friend, wasted too long not telling her. Promise me you won't make that mistake when the time comes, ok?" She nodded.

"I won't"

"Good. By the way, thanks for looking after us tonight"

"It's been a pleasure, everyone's been lovely and with you guys I don't have to worry about being hit on by some drunk guy before the end of the night"

"I thought we'd have to deal with some of that tonight but it's been good" Michelle smiled.

"When I found out you were all cops, I let the other waiters know. They kinda let it slip to their tables so you wouldn't be bothered" I stared at her for a second then grinned.

"Thank you Michelle, we all appreciate it" She grinned back at me.

"It was my pleasure, besides, if their too scared to hassle you then they won't come over here and bother me either" I laughed.

"Good thinking" I looked around and stepped closer. "Michelle, I need a huge favour" She nodded.

"Sure, if I can"

"When it hits midnight, can you get the DJ to hold off for about two or three minutes, I have something I need to do and I would really appreciate some quiet"

"Oh...Kay... I guess"

"Michelle, this is really, really important to me, to us" I saw her eyes flick up to Maura as her face lit up.

"Oh my god, are you really going to..." I nodded.

"Yeah, so I need a little quiet, can you do that for me? Please?" She smiled, leaning forward and giving me a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek.

"Consider it done" I smiled.

"Thank you"

"Don't worry Jane, it'll be fine"

I checked my watch, it was about a quarter to midnight, so with a whispered demand to Ana to keep Maura occupied, I dashed back up to our room and grabbed my package, before racing back down before I was missed with a few minutes to spare.

Seeing Maura chatting with Ana and Brenda, I slid in alongside of her, sliding my arm around her and pulling her close, getting a small smile as I did. I let the conversation finish as Michelle appeared to pass out Champaign flutes as everyone naturally paired off. Checking the time again I smiled at Maura.

"All set babe?" She smiled and nodded, before looking at everyone.

"May I have everyone's attention for a moment please?" I watched as heads came up and gazes focused on us. Maura took a deep breath as her arm pulled me in a little tighter.

"Jane and I would like to thank you for being here with us tonight. It means so much to have you here with us to celebrate the end of one year and the start of the next" There were smiles all round as she continued. "New Years Eve is traditionally celebrated in the company of your closest friends and family. While our families are not here tonight, I could not wish for a better, more wonderful group of friends to spend the night with"

"That's our line Maura" It was Alex, getting laughter all round as Sharon smiled.

"Nowhere else we'd rather be" Natalie grinned.

"Or people we'd rather be with" Maura's breath hitched for a second, before she rallied, a slight catch in her voice as she dealt with the emotions running through all of us.

"The last year has been very, very special. Some of us relocated..." She raised her glass to Ana and Nat, getting glasses raised in return. "...which turned out to be the right decision for us all" She looked around.

"We listened to our hearts and found the love we had always sought and dreamed of" Brenda and Sharon glanced at each other and smiled shyly as Alex gave Liv a quick kiss and I pulled Maura tighter to me, resting my head against hers and feeling a lump in my throat all over again.

"We met new people who turned out to be so much more than just friends" I looked at Ana and Nat, then at Sharon and Brenda, seeing the same smiles and happiness there as I was feeling, for a moment I felt myself floating in the joy that seemed to surround us all.

"Truly all our lives have changed so much, in so many ways. The last year has been full of blessings, I find it hard to imagine that the coming year could possibly top it. That said, in the company of the people we love, how can it not be anything but extraordinary. Thank you for being here, thank you for being our friends and thank you for being the people we love" There was silence for a second, I could tell everyone was dealing with their own emotions, I knew I was. Concerned by the silence, Maura quickly looked up at me, worry in her voice.

"Did I say something wrong?" I swept her into a hug, crushing her to me.

"God no, you said everything right babe" When I finally let her go we looked up from each other to see smiles all round. Ana lifted her glass.

"To Jane, and Maura, for being the best friends anyone could possibly ask for" Alex spoke quickly.

"To Maura and Jane, for being the people we love" Brenda smiled.

"To Maura and Jane, for everything they've done for us" The toast was drunk, as we stood there happily for a moment, before I heard the DJ call out less than two minutes to midnight. I motioned to Michelle and she moved round, refilling everyone's glass' before slipping off towards the DJ booth with a wink for luck.

We stepped out of the cabana onto the patio, joining many other people celebrating as they joined in on the countdown. We all took up the count as an electronic clock wound down the last ten seconds, as I stared into Maura's eyes, before a cheer went up and fireworks started going off down on the beach.

I pulled Maura into my arms as she pressed close, losing myself in her embrace, her kiss. This time last year it had been just another New Years Eve, this one was everything I could ever have hoped for, in the company of friends and in the arms of the woman I loved. The kiss was full of passion and love and sheer unadulterated joy, as I realised once again just how right this was.

Her parents, my brother, the people we'd worked with back in Boston, they were all wrong, Maura and I were meant to be together and by god no one was ever going to keep us apart.

I could feel the love she felt for me and the knowledge that I belonged to her gave me such a sense of rightness and completion that I felt full to bursting and I knew I was making the right decision. We stood there for a moment, whispering words of love and devotion as we clung together, smiling at each other in a happiness that I'd rarely ever known.

I stepped back, seeing Maura's soft smile and it hit so hard, I'd made the person I loved happy, nothing else could ever compare to that feeling. As I glanced around I could see our friends lost in each others arms, reaffirming their love as well.

I reached into my pocket, feeling the felt surface of the small box in my hand and shaking just a little as the enormity of what I was about to do hit me. For a second I hesitated, what if it wasn't what Maura wanted, what if she said no?

With effort I calmed my fears, they were irrational and stupid, I knew Maura, I knew her like I knew myself. This was what we both wanted, needed.

Palming the box, I dropped to one knee as Maura looked at me, her head tilting to one side in that quizzical habit I know and love, she wasn't sure what I was doing.

For a moment I paused, frozen as she stared at me, a quiet seemed to settle over us as I saw realisation dawning on Maura's face. I knelt there as I saw the shock appear in her face, her hand rising unbidden to her mouth as she understood what I was doing. I could feel our friends eyes on us as I spoke, a little loudly to be heard over the background buzz.

"Maura Isles, you are everything I have ever sought in a person. You are my friend, my confidant, my lover, my safe harbor in times of turbulence and trouble, you have made me a better person, made me strive to be worthy of you, to make you smile and bring you joy"

The noise on the patio was dying away as more and more people turned to watch, the sound of the fireworks dimly heard as my world narrowed down to just Maura, it'd always been that way, just Maura.

I thought about all the things we'd been through as I recited the words, I'd spent days working on the right words, then weeks practicing, making sure I knew them perfectly, if I ever got just one thing right it had to be this.

"I was bewitched by your beauty, charmed by your humour, captivated by your intellect, awed by your friendship and humbled by your love"

"Your presence fulfills me, your smile entrances me, your friendship comforts me and your love completes me, I swear that I will continue to strive to be the person you deserve, every day for the rest of my life, for as long as we both shall live"

I could see Maura was smiling, oblivious to the tears running down her cheeks. I swallowed a lump that had appeared in my throat so I could go on.

"Maura Isles, in you I have found the one and only true love of my life. I cannot conceive of a life without you by my side" I reached down and opened the small box, before holding it up to her in supplication.

I'd searched LA for just the right ring, dragging Ana from store to store getting a second opinion before we'd found the perfect ring, entwining red gold, yellow gold and platinum set with diamonds, flat so Maura could wear it under her gloves at work and not have to take it off. It sat there, a symbol of everything I felt. Everything I'd hoped and dreamed of, with Maura, the woman of my dreams.

"Will you do me the incomparable honour of being my wife?"

The world shrank and dissapeared, leaving just Maura and I, as I stared into her eyes, seeing the love and joy I felt reflected there and I knew her answer before I asked.

"Will you marry me?"

.

Fini

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**A/N **Well everyone, we finally come to the end of this particular journey. When I started writing Intersecting Lines I had no idea that it would end up so long, let alone 100 chapters.

The story grew, from being Jane and Maura's experiences to encompass Brenda and Sharon as well. Both couples are fun to write and with Natalie and Anastasia they almost write themselves. I can almost hear their words as if they are speaking them for me to transcribe them.

This isn't the end of their stories though. I have most of Intersecting Lines Book Two plotted out and much already written; it will be significantly shorter than Book 1, a more easily digestible meal perhaps. Book Three's key scenes are down on paper, partly in outline form, others completely finished.

Then there is the Passion and Possession series to finish, plus a major bridging story to link Books Two and Three starring Olivia and Alex, Kate Beckett and the CSI:NY crime lab, plus some stand alone stories to write.

I'm humbled that so many came with me on this journey and that you liked what I had to say.

Hopefully my future works will be better than this and you will be willing to follow me again.

Until then, thank you for your words, your encouragement and most of all, that most precious of commodities, your time.

It's said that each of us is born with a finite amount of time and how we spend it is the mark of how we live our lives. Spend each second as if it is more precious that gold, for when it is gone no amount of money can possibly buy us more.

Thank you for sharing some of that precious time with me, truly a gift without equal.

Mike


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